GM-VOLT : Chevy Volt Electric Car Site

We have reviewed and discussed the EPRI study which suggested mass-adoption of electric cars can be handled by the power grid, will result in net reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, and dramatically reduce U.S. petroleum consumption.

A more recent study by GM suggests E-REV use will reduce tailpipe emissions by 80%.

In the USA Today, two studies , one by the National Resources Defense Council and the other by the  Minnesota Pollution Control Agency were reported.

As we already know, the Chevy Volt is essentially a coal-burning car, because right now, the majority of U.S. electricity is produced at coal-burning powerplants.

As per the NRDC report, if the elecricity is generated in older-technology coal plants, “there is a possibility for significant increases of soot and mercury,” .

The second study suggested “plug-ins also could result in more sulfur dioxide (SO₂) emissions,” and mentions “SO₂ is toxic in large amounts and is a component of corrosive acid rain”.  This study also apparently contradicted the prior EPRI study in concluding that PHEV use could increase CO2 emissions.

Source (USA Today)

Motor Trend published a report summarizing some of the presentations at the Society of Automotive Engineers Hybrid Symposium in San Diego last week.

One of these was by a Dr. Menahem Anderman of Advanced Automotive Batteries, which gave a “cold-eyed view” on PHEVs. His report concluded that GM won’t be able to make the Volt affordable without Toyota.

He is reported to doubt PHEVs will be very significant players in the near future, and states that a 40-mile PHEV battery like the one in the Volt costs about $10,000, which is too high to be replaced in the vehicles serviceable lifetime, and makes the car expensive.

It was also his contention that promoting the Toyota hybrid system will do more to reduce CO2 emissions, since they are already the market leader in hybrids, claiming hybrids offer a greater efficiency jump over gas engines than PHEVs do over hybrids.

He also say lithium ion batteries futures are “too sketchy”.

It is implied he thinks that Chevy Volts wont sell in volumes due to their price, and that lithium-ion battery prices wont drop until Toyota puts them into their cars.

The conclusion is therefore, that the Volts price cant drop until Toyota sells lithium-ion battery cars in large volumes.

Do you believe this?

Source (Motortrend)

Peter Savagian is an engineer at GM who worked on the EV-1. He recently presented data from his study on the effect of driving electrified vehicles.

The presentation examines and discusses the implication of plug-in hybrid and E-REV utilization.

Per Peter, “GM’s Advanced Propulsion Technology Strategy is to remove automobiles from the environmental dialogue.”, and “another key element of the strategy is to allow automobiles to shift significant portions of their required energy from petroleum to other sources.” This is otherwise known as petroleum displacement.

The definition of an E-REV is proposed as “a vehicle that functions s a full-performance battery electric vehicle when energy is available from an onboard RESS (rechargeable electric storage system) and having an auxiliary energy supply that is only engaged when the RESS energy is not available.” He also says “the E-REV is unique from a PHEV in that the vehicle, battery and propulsion system are sized such that the engine never is required for operation of the vehicle when energy is available from the battery.”

In the study, Peters group analyzed real-world detailed driving data from a cohort of over 600 actual drivers in Southern California. As opposed to running simulation a on pre-defined test cycles such as the US06, the study analyzes what the effect of this real-world driving behavior would be if it occurred in a conventional vehicle, plug-in hybrid, or E-REV.

One key finding was that the hybrid reduced fuel consumption by 23%, the PHEV by 54%, and the E-REV by 80%.

When measured as a function of number of engine starts, the study showed that emissions were not significantly reduced using a HEV, but were reduced by 72% using an E-REV.

Peter concludes that “electrification that enables E-REVs may be well worth the effort.” and “while PHEVs can make improvements when compared to HEVs, an E-REV appears to realize a much greater portion of societal benefits.”

Further he says, “By offering full-performance on electric power alone, the E-REV operates as an EV for the majority of real drivers. By retaining an ICE-powered charging capability, the E-REV overcomes the “range anxiety” limitations of earlier BEVs. We anticipate that the E-REV will be an important and practical step forward in the electrification of the automobile”.

See Peter’s blog post and presentation of the data: (LINK)

Mostly, we talk about the Volt here, but relevant and related topics are often worth discussing.

We have previously discussed a secretive Texas company called EEStor, who are reported to be working on a new type of ultracapacitor that can hold 10x the energy in 1/10th the weight of typical batteries, at a fraction of the cost.

They have an agreement to produce caps for Zenn electric cars but to date have not shown any prototypes. This has led some to suspect EEStor as not having the technology they report.

Today, however, Lockheed Martin, the major U.S. military equipment manufacturer has announced a partnership agreement with EEStor to develop energy applications.

If these ultracaps can really deliver what they are projected to, they could offer a dramatic advantage for electric vehicles.

To that end, I interviewed Lionel Liebman, manager of Program Development – Applied Research at Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control.

The entire interview can be seen by clicking below.
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Dr. Yi Cui

Many of you have heard about the new breakthrough in lithium-ion battery storage. I had an interview with the scientist who discovered it, and hopes to bring it to market, Dr. Yi Cui, Assistant Professor of Material Science and Engineering at Stanford University.

Can you tell us what you have discovered?

The idea is to use silicon nanowires as the active lithium storage material for the battery electrode. Silicon can store a lot of lihtium but the volume expansion is too high, by using nanowires we are really solving the problem of this big volume expansion and we can achieve extremely high capacity, lithium storage capacity with multiple cycles. this is 10 times more than the current technology. So the implications of this discovery is very, very exciting, it means you can have a better battery.

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Normally we discuss news and facts related to production of the Chevy Volt. But this technological breakthrough seems so important I thought it deserves mention here.

As we know, the Volt will be powered by lithium-ion batteries either from A123 systems or LG Chem.

In these and most li-ion batteries, energy is stored in an anode made of carbon. Carbon has a limited storage capacity. Silicon has a much higher storage capacity, but when silicon is used as an anode, its fibers swell as they fill with electrons, that makes them unstable, and they actually break apart.

The new breakthrough has come from the lab of Yi Cui at Stanford University. He found if he made silicon nanowires and used these as anodes, the batteries have 10 times the charging capacity and the fibers remain stable without breaking.

OK so now imagine a 400 pound battery pack that hold 160 kWH or 400 miles of range, perhaps for no great added cost.

Is GM looking at this? I will try to find out.

What do you think?

Source (Stanford U.)