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Auto GM Readies Chevrolet Volt for 2010
Brandon Hill (Blog) - November 21, 2007 3:00 PM
Print E-mail del.icio.us 73 comment(s) - last by svenkesd.. on Nov 26 at 2:54 PM

Chevrolet Volt
General Motors' all-electric Volt to reach consumers in late 2010

General Motors is quite confident these days. The company recently priced its highly-anticipated full-size hybrid SUVs and showed off a concept version of its full-size hybrid Chevrolet Silverado. GM CEO Rick Wagoner also noted that his company will release one hybrid per quarter for the next four years -- lofty goals indeed.

Likewise, the company's brand new Chevrolet Malibu mid-sized sedan has been generating an overabundance of praise and its new $32,000 second-generation Cadillac CTS just walked away with Motor Trend's Car of the Year award.

GM is hoping to use this momentum and high level of interest in its vehicles to push the electric motor-powered Chevrolet Volt to customers by the end of 2010.

GM vice chairman Bob Lutz has heard all of the critics who question GM's aggressive ramp for the Volt, but is still committed to moving forward.

"There is a lot of skepticism within the company about the timeline," said Lutz. "People are biting their nails, but those of us in a leadership position have said it has to be done."

GM is hoping to use the Volt as a halo car to further strengthen its brand and its commitment to fuel economy. Dodge used the Viper to enhance its image for performance and styling in the 1990s. Toyota used its Prius at the turn of the century to shroud the entire company with a green image despite the fact that gas guzzlers like the Tundra and Sequoia share the same showroom space.

"When they think of GM, the iconic brand is, unfortunately, the Hummer," continued Lutz. "That perception needs to change.

The GM Volt features a 1.0 liter, 3-cylinder gasoline engine which is solely used to recharge the onboard lithium-ion battery pack. The battery pack, which will be manufactured by Compact Power and Continental Automotive Systems, powers the Volt's electric motors for forward propulsion.

GM says that the Volt can travel for up to 40 miles on battery power alone. After the 40 mile threshold has been reached, the gasoline engine kicks back in again to recharge the battery pack.

The entire industry has its eyes on GM and its Volt. Toyota took a big risk with its Prius and it has paid off dearly for the company.

"We have since realized that letting Toyota gain that mantle of green respectability and technology leadership has really cost us dearly in the marketplace," Lutz added. "We have to reestablish GM's leadership and the Volt is, frankly, an effort to leapfrog anything that is done by any other competitor."

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Lets see real world performance
By Screwballl on 11/21/2007 3:07:02 PM , Rating: 3
I really do like the styling of that car. I would like to see some real world testing to see how it does in the frigid north, blistering heat southwest and the steamy southeast. Also I would like to see how it does on a long road trip of say 2000+ miles. Maybe after they get into the used car lots I will have to pick one up for me.




RE: Lets see real world performance
By Screwballl on 11/21/2007 3:10:04 PM , Rating: 1
One small issue I see is that I wonder if it REQUIRES E85 or would regular unleaded gas work??? I would assume it could but I don't know. Other stories and information all say it runs on E85 but considering ethanol is not available within 200+ miles of me, would be interesting to see how that plays out.


RE: Lets see real world performance
By Martin Blank on 11/21/2007 3:43:35 PM , Rating: 3
GM's entire (or nearly entire) line is or will be flex-fuel, so it will probably be able to use anything from gasoline to E85.


RE: Lets see real world performance
By Screwballl on 11/21/2007 3:50:27 PM , Rating: 2
Thats what I am hoping. I figured it would be fine but there are always exceptions to the rule.

Would also be nice to know if this is where the direction of cars are going, to use the gas engine for recharging only and eventually maybe go to a wind turbine behind the front grill or another source to charge it.
Mr Fusion here we come!


RE: Lets see real world performance
By Martin Blank on 11/21/2007 4:09:14 PM , Rating: 5
Another site I read today mentioned a six-hour recharge time for the Volt using a 110v outlet, with a capacity of about 16kWh, so it would be drawing about 24 amps. That's a pretty sharp power level (2600W) to get from a home production system such as a wind turbine, but it would be easily possible with a roof-mounted solar array.

The Volt would get a 40-mile range from this charge, so at 2.5 miles/kWh and using California's pricing of about $0.14/kWh average mid-day, you're looking at about 5.6 cents per mile. Compare this to a 30mpg car, which at $3 per gallon costs about 10 cents per mile.


RE: Lets see real world performance
By Doormat on 11/21/2007 4:26:44 PM , Rating: 2
Don't most homes have a 20A breaker? Not saying you couldn't upgrade, I happen to have a spare 240V outlet in my garage on a 20A line (4800W), but that may not be true in all cases. Regardless, it might be a good idea to have an electrician come out and take a look at things, maybe install a higher capacity circuit for recharging vehicles.

Plus I would assume that recharging would be done at night for most people at cheaper rates.


RE: Lets see real world performance
By Oregonian2 on 11/21/2007 5:12:05 PM , Rating: 3
I think there may be some 25A ones, but 20A is pretty standard for kitchens and the like I think.

However, note that there are some fuzzy's in the calculation. One is "about 6 hours", it may be 6.49 and rounded off. Also, "110V" lines are typically 117 to 120 Volts I think. 110 V may be only be where they've three-phase into homes rather than the standard split 240V single phase which I think is more common for homes.

Also a typical "recharge" probably isn't from a dead-zero dead doornail battery state. It might be assumed to be 20% charged or some such.


RE: Lets see real world performance
By bdewong on 11/23/2007 12:21:18 PM , Rating: 2
There are also 30A breakers as well. We had them installed for our UPS's.


RE: Lets see real world performance
By Andrwken on 11/23/2007 4:55:11 PM , Rating: 2
208 3 phase systems generally tend to run at the 120 volt range as well. Generally if you see 110v on the line its due to poor wiring, or long runs of wiring incapable to transmit the full voltage. Residential wiring usually is delivered in the 120 volt range to avoid voltage drops that would cause excessive heat due to lower voltage, causing higher amperage draws on the equipment being run on that power. Once you hit 100v, most equipment, motors especially, will overheat and fail. I think the 110v designation is purely due to the commonly understood naming, not the actual voltage used to compute the time.

I wonder if it has the capability to manually run the motor, to charge the battery, say, on the ride home to not have to spend so much time charging off the pole?


RE: Lets see real world performance
By Alexvrb on 11/24/2007 10:17:40 PM , Rating: 3
"I wonder if it has the capability to manually run the motor, to charge the battery, say, on the ride home to not have to spend so much time charging off the pole?"

Charging the batteries via an AC outlet is completely and entirely optional. Its there so you can plug your car in when you get home, giving you a low-cost initial 40 mile charge. This would actually be enough for a lot of people's daily drive, or at least a large chunk of it. If you don't charge it up, or after your battery runs low, there's no need to manually run the engine. When the batteries reach a certain point, the engine will kick on and will charge the batteries while you drive. It's able to provide enough power to charge the batteries and propel the vehicle, so there's no need to ever run the engine manually as it will run and shut off as-needed.

They could have extended the battery-only range, but it would mean larger/more expensive batteries, as well as increased charging time. 40 miles is a good compromise between cost and usefulness, and again, the car will still be more efficient than a non-hybrid even after the initial charge runs out (due to the engine running at highly optimized ranges, regenerative braking, etc).

Also the drivetrain is designed to be flexible. It could be a turbo inline 3 flexfuel motor (E85 and regular gasoline), or it could be a diesel, etc. Any combustion engine that can be used to generate electricity, could be mated to their setup.


RE: Lets see real world performance
By Locutus465 on 11/21/2007 4:36:39 PM , Rating: 2
Isn't CA under a constant power crisis? Would plugging in your car really help that situation?


RE: Lets see real world performance
By Hoser McMoose on 11/21/2007 5:45:40 PM , Rating: 4
Fortunately it's unlikely to have a huge impact on the power grid for two reasons. First of all we aren't talking about a huge number of vehicles to start with, maybe 60,000 if GM is lucky. Second, and perhaps more importantly, is that the electricity use patterns are likely to be rather different from peak use patterns, and peak use is what counts on the power grid.

Typical peak use in warm weather areas occurs on hot weekdays mid to late afternoon when air conditions are working full out. These vehicles are likely to be charge mostly when people get home from work, ie starting somewhere around 5:00-7:00pm and going for the next 6 hours. In areas where people are on "smart metering" systems (ie they pay a different rate for electricity depending on the time of day) then pretty much everyone is likely to charge their car at the time of minimum rates which, for obvious reasons, corresponds to the time of minimum usage as well.

In reality, these vehicles might actually HELP the power situation by providing more revenue with zero investment required in infrastructure. One of the trickiest parts of a power grid is that normally half of your generating capacity has to sit idle half of the time because demand fluctuates so much.


RE: Lets see real world performance
By Spuke on 11/26/2007 1:07:10 AM , Rating: 3
Granted this is still quite a ways away but isn't part of the intended purpose of these vehicles to replace our current gas only engines? If everyone is charging their cars on off peak hours, then how long will take before off peak is no longer off peak? CA doesn't have any plans, that I'm aware of, to upgrade their infrastructure to accommodate future electricity usage. Shouldn't we be planning for this eventually now instead of adding to the burden?


By Hoser McMoose on 11/21/2007 5:04:18 PM , Rating: 2
I wouldn't read TOO much into the charging times just yet. First of all, the design of the battery seems to be to stay between 30 and 80% charge at all times. So the 40-mile range is definitely NOT for the entire 16kWh. It might actually be only 8kWh worth of electrical power, or at most 11.2kWh (from full charge down to 30% charge when the gas generator kicks in).

Also my understanding is that the idea is to get the charge under a fairly standard 115V/15A circuit, which suggests that they're pulling less current and therefore not getting a full charge cycle (empty to full) in six hours. That would work out to around 10kWh worth of juice, which is pretty close to getting it from it's 30% level (lowest it's supposed to reach during normal use) up to a full charge.

Either way you slice it though, MUCH cheaper than gasoline and likely to be more environmentally friendly as well, even if you get your electricity from coal (though coal power plants without scrubbers are still criminally dirty things in my books... but that's another rant).


RE: Lets see real world performance
By Alexstarfire on 11/21/2007 5:09:46 PM , Rating: 2
You also have to realize that that is only when you use nothing but electricity. Once that gas engine kicks in to start recharging the batteries the cost per mile starts increasing pretty fast. Haven't read much up on the Volt, but I wonder at what speed they got a 40-mile range.

Even at a modest 55 MPG on my current car it works out to $.0545 per mile at $3.00 a gallon. And I bet my car won't cost near as much as the Volt. Of course, I bet the electricity you get from the wall is a bit cleaner than my car, and that's what really matters. Wonder how much the difference really is though?


RE: Lets see real world performance
By TomZ on 11/21/2007 5:13:29 PM , Rating: 2
Uh, 55MPG is not "modest," it is exceptional. Most people are driving cars and getting 20-30MPG.

For an apples-to-apples efficiency/cost comparison, you really have to compare the Volt to a similar car with a traditional ICE.


RE: Lets see real world performance
By Alexstarfire on 11/22/2007 4:20:00 PM , Rating: 2
I was saying it's modest for my car. It's not modest in general, hell no. That's damn good in general. It's just that I'm getting about 55 MPG right now, because of the colder weather, but my lifetime average is about 59 MPG, with my best MPG being like 64.

Why would you compare a Volt to a traditional ICE when the Volt uses electricity to power the car? I thought it'd make sense to compare it to a hybrid since they are VERY similar. The only real differences are how they use the power from the ICE and the types of batteries and such they use.

I have always wondered if it really is better to run the ICE the way the Volt does. I mean, it'll ALWAYS be in the absolute most efficient state, but then you have conversion loses. Does running in the most efficient state overcome the loses that incur from conversion? For that matter, will it provide enough juice for someone to drive normally or will the car end up having a slower top speed. I'm under the impression that because the ICE is running in the most efficient state that it doesn't produce enough power to drive the same as running just off the batteries. I could be wrong though. Hard to say since no one has test driven one yet, at least I don't believe anyone has.


RE: Lets see real world performance
By clovell on 11/23/2007 11:43:56 AM , Rating: 3
It's not hard to say. ICEs are highly inefficient when they operate outside their powerband. Using a generator that always runs in the powerband to power an electric motor makes a l