GM-VOLT : Chevy Volt Electric Car Site

For those of you who don’t know, Chris Paine wrote and directed the film “Who Killed the Electric Car” which chronicled the demise of GM’s EV-1 program.  The film basically villainized GM and intensified their already bad PR.  There is little doubt that Paine’s film helped to spark the Volt program.  It is also the case that the act of watching that film for the first time sends people to the pages of this site and leads to my receiving some often bitter emails.  Here’s a random recent example:

I just finished watching the movie “Who Killed the Electric Car”. It appears General Motors was the primary killer!  Accordingly, I suspect GM might do it again, given the right amount of incentives!!

As you might expect, my enthusiasm for the GM Chevy Volt has diminished.

Anyway it turns out at the GM Centennial last week Chris Paine was an invited guest where he participated in a roundtable discussion on the future of transportation.

Many may remember that GM had previously announced they planned to let selected media drive Volt mules this summer, and it never seemed to happen, or did it?

I was told that a group of selected people, variably referred to as “VIPs” or “technical people” indeed had the pleasure of driving Volt mules last week.  This group included Chris Paine.

I also observed Paine and his crew filming interviews for a sequel to his movie, to be called something along the lines of “Who Saved the Electric Car”.

It looks like GM is really starting to pull a 180 on this PR thing.

It only been a few hours since we heard from Toyota that they plan on bringing plug-in versions of the Prius into test fleets in 2009.

GM Vice-Chairman Bob Lutz responded to this news in an interview with reporters.

He indicated that the race between Toyota and GM to create a plug-in car is “meaningless” as the Chevy Volt and plug-in Prius are too different to compare. He cited the very short range in the Prius and it’s need for gas to go any significant distances.

He also said he expects Toyota 2009 plug-in test fleet would be a very small number. On the contrary, the production-version Volt however will be in a large test fleet by late 2009.

Source (IHT)

A report out of Autocar (UK) is entitled Chevrolet Volt in final phase.

The author explains a bit more about the current shift from Malivolt prototypes to the new vintage Andrew Farah recently told us about.

The article claims the new prototypes will be an Astra-derived package, indeed the article defines the Volt itself as Astra-derived.

It is noted that the Volt’s control systems comprised 20 different processors that will eventually combine into “one unique architecture”.

Furthermore the author seems to know that the Volt will weigh around 3520 lbs (1600 kg, something we’ve never been told) and have a weight distribution of about 50:50 (a fact we’ve heard before).

As we know, representative powertrain will meet representative body sometime next year, and so the report notes that GM expects to show off a near ready car at an auto show in late 2009.

Source (Autocar)

The road to the launch of the Volt is paved with many milestones. The first big one was delivery of the first lithium-ion battery packs, which took place Oct 31, 2007. The next was the running of the first early development vehicles, using those packs, which took place in mid-April.

Now GM is on the dawn of the next milestone, the running of the first true mule, which is a developmental Chevy Volt that contains all of its production-intent components. GM expects to have 50 of these running by the end of this year. I had a chance to discuss this juncture with Andrew Farah who is the Chevy Volt’s chief engineer.

What is the status of the Volt’s development at this point?
Everything is going along exactly as planned. We’re on time for late 2010.

All of the schedule milestones are being met without difficulty?
Yes everything is moving just they way it should. We’ve got a milestone that’s called ‘styling freeze’ coming up in just a few weeks. We’re working very carefully with the design studios to finalize the interior and exterior details.

We’re going through a number of aerodynamic confirmation activities over the next couple of weeks to make sure we’ve got it just the way we want it to be from an aerodynamics perspective.

We are in the middle of building our next vintage of development vehicles that we’ll have later in the year. Next week I hope to go through the final check out of the first one in the batch.

It’s nearly assembled then?
Yes. Next week we’ll go in and do what we refer to as ‘lab check.’ We will make sure that its been built as we had desired. Typically there’s one or two small issues and we find them and we fix them and there’s time in the schedule to do so.

The parts in the next vintage then are more refined and similar to the final car than the ones you’ve been running so far?
Yes. These will have a full production-intent underbody. They will have production-intent battery packs and design. They will have a production-intent powertrain unit which you know consists of the engine, the motors, their packaging and the power electronics. Yes there are still refinements that will continue, but at this point its production-intent from the skin-in. The outside still doesn’t look like a Volt, and the inside doesn’t look like a Volt. We’re just finishing styling freeze as these vehicles are being built, so we’re still a ways away form all those details.

Will these developmental vehicles continue to have the late-model Malibu skins?
No. We’re using a different donor vehicle. Nothing Volt-like.

Have you learned a lot more about the power control systems such as for example the turning on and off of the generator so that they will now be more refined in the new batch of mules?
We’ve been working those basic issues in the current developmental vehicles. We’ve learned a lot but these don’t have all the production intent aspects of the systems. So while we were able to develop the control theory and those kinds of things, we still have to go back in even with this next vintage of vehicles and re-tune some of that. It’s just part of the natural process.

As an example when this new vintage comes out of lab check it still won’t be as good operationally as the current Mali-volts are. It will take us a few weeks of development to get them up to that level of refinement. But then because these have so much more in them and are so much more production intent, they will quickly exceed the levels of refinement of the Mali-Volts.

[Note: Volt chief designer Bob Boniface will be taking questions in a live online chat from 3-4 EST on GMnext.com ]

While getting the first Volt into production remains GMs focus right now, there’s no question they have big plans for E-Flex in the future.

In case you missed it, in my interview with Bob Boniface , E-Flex lead designer, he states clearly that he is already designing future E-Flex vehicles.

In today’s Detroit Press, Volt director Frank Weber confirmed that fact stating "The significance of the project has increased,".

Chief engineer Andrew Farah said next vehicles to get E-Flex will likely be small and mid-sized ones, because the drivetrain would have to be modified considerably to be used in trucks and SUVs.

Weber also indicated that Volt updates would occur on a highly accelerated yearly basis as opposed to the usual 3 to 5 year cycles.  He noted that nine areas on the Volt’s design where major improvements or cost reductions could be made for the next year cycle have already been identified.

Furthermore he told reporters that the first running prototypes with production-intent parts will arrive in the next 10 days with 50 expected by year end.

I have been advised by Mr. Farah that these will not have Volt skins, but will "borrow" the skin of another vehicle besides the Malibu that the present "Mali-Volts" are using.

Source (Detroit Free Press )

Sam Abuelsamid of AutoBlogGreen and Green Fuels Forecast had the awesome opportunity to interview GM vice chairman and Volt leader Bob Lutz after his Chevy Volt Prototype test drive. The video appears below.

Mr. Lutz described rapid and great acceleration getting the car up to 75-80 mph. He marveled at the eerie silence of the car off the gun, and mentioned how it handles well due to the low century of gravity of the battery pack.

He confirmed that there are 3 or four prototype vehicles now running with the battery packs installed and he said “that (number is) going to increase very quickly.”

He also said the prototypes are running not only on the test track but the public roads as well.

He said the first cars to look like the “real Volt” will appear at the end of this year, and that by spring and summer of 2009 there will be “several hundred” of these and thats when the final integration vehicles will appear. Those will be used for crash and safety, and he notes public early drives and media events will commence.

In a bombshell, Lutz stated that there are only one of the two suppliers packs in the current mules, and that they are now concentrating on only one of the suppliers but he refrained from saying which one. He says at this point GM is very close to one of the two suppliers because of a lower risk with that one. Any guesses?

He also said at their most recent E-Flex senior leadership meeting, they reviewed the HMI or human-machine interface and noted the interior of the car will be “super-cool” and apparently quite customizable.

He confirms supreme confidence that “we’re good for November 2010″ and that there are “zero problems” with the batteries and that in fact “they are exceeding their expectations”, although they have had some minor inner-cell mechanical welding issues, there have been no electrochemical ones.

He declined to comment of the cars cost but admits the first version will be more expensive than GM would like it be.

Lutz never got to experience the ICE coming on, because him and his team only drove it for 20 miles.

Very Cool Sam!

Source (Green Fuels Forecast)

[flash http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A17JrjXYcxs]