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Articles from GM-Volt: Chevy Volt Concept Site

New York Times Article on Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) 2007-09-03 08:43:59 An idea that is invariably invoked when people discuss plug-in electric cars like the Volt is vehicle-to-grid technology. (see previous post) The general concept is that when there is a large fleet of plugins on the road, users will plug them in at night during low demand and charge them. During the day, when demand is high, the cars could remain plugged-in (while not driven) and act as thousands (?millions) of little reservoirs feeding their electricity back into the grid as demand requires. This would produce a buffer helping the grid to meet demand and averting blackouts. Presumably, the drivers could be reimbursed by the utility cos for the power they contribute. This new article from the Times, illustrates how an individual hooked their Prius up to the house during a blackout. The engine was turned on and off, letting the car power the house for hours, turning it into a $30K basic generator. Certainly the idea of V2G makes sense from the standpoint of the utility companies, bu ...

Green Car Design and the Volt 2007-09-02 16:07:29 Bob Boniface, head of Volt desigin Mostly we have been discussing the remarkable engineering that will propel the Chevy Volt. Alot of thought also goes into design. It is interesting to note that the first hybrid cars strove to appear different, so much so that the Honda Insight is discontinued, and the original Prius modelling was later changed. Drivers, it is determined by automakers, want others to notice that they are driving fuel-efficient cars. In the present day, the unique but not radical appearance of the Prius has become synonymous with hybrid. Other models, that carry a hybrid badge only have not fared as well (Accord Hybrid). A new report about this discussion was published today in the Boston Globe. GMs latest hybrids such as the VUE greenline comes in green with a large badge. The Volt, is meant to be differnent. Not frumpy, but camaro-esque, and bold-grilled, with its unique glass dropped into the doors and windows up high. There is talk about a secret new Toyota hy ... Design

Report About A123 Systems 2007-09-01 16:17:22 The IEEE Spectrum Online has published a fairly extensive report about A123 systems and its battery efforts. Ric Fulop noted the company has several contracts to supply batteries already with U.S. and European automakers, in addition to GM. The author mentions that fears about safety appearing to be delaying the emergence of li-ion battery powered cars. He also notes that Tesla’s car uses a large number of cells linked separately whereas A123 simply has safer technology. This is what Bart Riley, CTO told GM-Volt.com previously. It is also mentioned that car battery packs will likely consist of about 100 high power 20 to 50 amp-hour cells grouped into individually monitored modules. There is also a nice discussion about the doped, nanostructured iron phosphate cathodes of A123 cells and their special safety. They don’t overheat when they fail. Anonymous sources agree that these cells are safe and fail in a benign manner when subjected to overcharging in the lab. The art ...

E-Flex Opel Appears to Have a Name: Opel Flextreme 2007-08-31 18:40:56 Within the past 2 hours (it’s 7:40 PM EST) an article was published in the Financial Times of London. The articles focus is again on the theme of charging stations, only it is reported that Toyota will be teaming with French utility EDF to develop the electric architecture that will be required for future Toyota plug-in cars in Europe. The article goes on to mention Toyota’s competitors and mentions GM and its plans to unveil the Opel version of the E-Flex which we’ve been discussing. Whether inadvertently or intentionally the article calls the car the Opel Flextreme. As far as I know this is the first mention on the internet of the name of this vehicle. Whether it’s true or not remains to be seen. Be advised that I am only reporting on what can be found publicly online and I possess no pre-reveal knowledge or information otherwise. ...

Hyatt Builds Charging Station for the Tesla Roadster 2007-08-31 10:22:09 In probably little more than a PR move, Hyatt Hotels through an agreement with Tesla Motorcars has announced that it will install Tesla recharging stations at three hotels, stretching in an arc from San Francisco to Lake Tahoe. This comes on the heels of our last post about the speed of recharge using a 220 V oulet. Tesla apparently offers two methods of recharging its cars, either from a standard wall outlet which would take on the order of 24 hours! Or, if one uses these specially designed high amperage, high voltage lines, that Hyatt is installing, the cars can recharge in 3.5 hours. Of note, the Tesla uses a 53 kWh battery pack which is why it takes so long to charge, an issue which will not be true for the Volt that uses 8 kWh out of a 16 kWh pack Still, this news indicates the first hints about how a new national (and perhaps global) charging infrastructure may emerge as electric cars become commonplace. I see some good business opportunities here. ...

Vauxhall and Opel E-Flex Drivers Will Charge Their Cars in Half the Time 2007-08-31 08:59:01 Ahead of the worldwide introduction of the next iteration of the Chevy Volt at the 2007 Frankfurt Auto Show, reports are beginning to circulate about the car. As we know it is an E-flex vehicle using the same basic tehcnology as the Volt only with a 1.3 L diesel on-board powerplant as opposed to the 1.0 L gas/E85 system planned for the Volt. Of interest, each of these new reports mentions the fact that the E-Flex Opel can be recharged in about 3 hours, whereas the Volt’s recharge time has been reported at 6.5 hours. As one of our commenter’s noted in a previous post, this is likely due to the fact that Europeans have 220V electric lines in their homes, as opposed to 110V systems used in the U.S. We expect that the battery pack can certainly handle the more rapid rates of charge, and theoreticlly one could install a 220 or 230 V transformer in their home in the U.S. But, how important is the speed of recharge for average everyday commuters? After all, the car will mostly ...

More on the Opel E-Flex Concept 2007-08-30 12:26:18 Frank Weber, GM chief engineer has made some comments about the E-Flex Opel concept car set to debut in Frankfurt in 2 weeks. Keep in mind the car is essentially the same vehicle as the Volt except for using a different range extender For one thing Mr. Weber tell’s us is the car is Astra-sized, and as we expect, the range extending engine will be diesel-powered.  He says of the car, that full recharge time is 3 hours (can this be correct??), and “This has extremely high torque characteristics,” and, “similar to what you would get from a V6 engine, and it is available from zero revs.”   The latter comment reflicting the characteristics of electric motors. He also makes the following comments: “We have to see how the battery performs in very hot and very cold conditions and what sort of drain is put on it by other systems such as heating and air conditioning, audio systems, lights and windscreen wipers.” and “But we are not looking at this essentially as a lon ...

Nissan Proposes its Electric Car Concept: the Mixim 2007-08-30 08:53:13 Like every carmaker before it including GM, Toyota, Ford, and several smaller operatives, Nissan is announcing it’s interest in building an electric car with a new concept called the Mixim. The car will be shown at the Frankfurt Auto show and it noted to have two electric “Supermotors”, one for each axle, to produce the equilvalent of all-wheel drive. The car is styled for the video-gamer, shaped like a crash-helmet, and uses lithium-ion batteries. Nissan is not guaranteeing production. Here is Edmunds take on it. ...

Honda Tries to Re-enter Hybrid War With the “Global Small Hybrid” 2007-08-30 08:40:08 The Honda Insight was the first hybrid in the U.S. market in 1999. Now, it is of course discontinued, beaten along with it’s brethren the Civic and Accords hybrids, by the Toyota Prius models of which outsell all the Hondas by 5 to 1. Honda wont go down without a fight, and is now planning a new comeback breakthrough car. Details are non-existent, but the new car code-named “Global Smal Hybrid” is expected to hit the streets in 2009, and have the highest fuel efficiency of any car on the road. You can read the whole Newsweek article here. It’s pretty clear the hybrid/electric market is going to be heating up faster than your laptop’s lithium-ion battery pack, so let’s hope we get those Volts on the road! ... Hybrid

Latest Chevy Volt Battery Pack and Generator Details and Clarifications 2007-08-29 08:35:29 In some recent posts, we were able to find out and discuss some important details about how the Volt’s li-ion battery pack is intended to function. One of the most critical facts we obtained from GM is that the 40 mile all-electric driving range will occur within 50% of the batteries maximum charge, or 8 kWh out of 16 kWh total. This translates to 200Wh/mile of energy consumption. We also looked at the ability of the combustion engine (53 kW maximum) to keep the battery charged and how it might operate to do so. This generated some very intriguing discussion and further questions. I went back to GM and had some discussion with other sources familiar with the Volt’s engineering, and have been able to elucidate the following more accurate facts: As per Rob Peterson, GM spokesman, the battery will operate in the 50% “swing” zone, but actually, the batteries full point will be 80% (not 100%). So its charge state will actually vary between 30% SOC and 80% SOC. ...

BREAKING: Volt Combustion Engine Still Undecided: Won’t be HCCI at First 2007-08-28 09:57:28 Tom Stephens, GM VP Global Powertrain As we mentioned in a previous post, GM recently demonstrated an HCCI engine for the first time in a driveable car. The technology; good at low fixed RPMs, very fuel efficient, seemed ideal for the Volt’s on-board generator and we discussed that possibility. I had the opportunity to pose this question to Tom Stephens, who is General Motor’s Group Vice President of Global Powertrain and Global Quality. Mr. Stephen’s is highly involved and interested in the development of HCCI, and the ideal person to tell us about it’s applicability to the Volt. Here is the conversation: GM-Volt: “Is this engine type (HCCI) being considered for the Chevy Volt?” Mr: Stephens: “HCCI is a technology that is just emerging from the laboratory and won’t be ready for production when the Chevy Volt is introduced. However, when HCCI is ready for production, the Volt would be one of the many applications under consideration. ...

What’s the Hymotion Commotion? 2007-08-27 13:46:05 Soon after the Chevy Volt concept was first announced, A123 Systems announced that they were acquiring a company called Hymotion. We know that Hymotion specializes in building add-on plug-in lithium-ion battery packs that extend the electric range of existing parallel hybrids such as the Prius or Ford Escape hybrid (as well as invalidating their warranties) Today a report out of Canada expands on some details of this company and the A123 relationship. The company hopes to step in for owners when the existing NiMh battery packs begin to die, and hence the car is already past warranty.  The user could then substitute one of these packs and wind up with longer electric only driving. So far the 8-person Canadian company has sold a meager 30 units, with 35 more on order. They hope to sell 2000 units in 2008.  A123 now owns them and will supply the batteries. So could you get a Volt effect by buying an old Prius and retrofitting it?  If A123 gets chosen to makes the Volt’s battery ...

Could This Be the Volt’s Combustion Engine: GM Demonstrates HCCI Motor for 1st Time in Driveable Car 2007-08-26 23:12:02 HCCI stands for Homogeneous Charge Compression Ignition, and is a new type of combustion engine paradigm. Traditional engines, with which we are all familiar, use spark ignition (SI). In that system, a spark plug fires and ignites the fuel in the combustion chamber forcing the piston to move. In HCCI engines, the fuel is compressed within the chamber and is able to ignite through compression at multiple ignition points (as opposed to the single one at the tip of the spark plug). This is referred to as a lean combustion process, and occurs at a lower temperature. This leads to lower CO2 output and improved efficiency, allowing for a 15% increase in fuel efficiency. The process is said to nearly equal diesel engines in terms of fuel efficiency, but does not require the expensive processing needed to deal with noxious diesel emissions. On August 24th, GM announced that two drivable cars using HCCI engines have been demonstrated, the first time that this type of engine has left the l ...

NEW FEATURE: Bi-Monthly Chevy Volt Video News Update 2007-08-26 09:40:13 I am trying out a new feature here on GM-Volt.com. Just as the GM execs are meeting every two weeks to discuss progress on the Chevy Volt’s development, I thought it would be a good idea if I posted a video wrap-up of the past two weeks news, information, and events related to the Chevy Volt. Look for it every two weeks on Sundays. Feedback is welcome. (Either JavaScript is not active or you are using an old version of Adobe Flash Player. Please install the newest Flash Player.) ...

Toyota Thinks People Might Not Want Plug-in Electric Vehicles Like the Chevy Volt 2007-08-25 10:08:30 Bloomberg.com has published a surprising interview with Bill Reinert, national manager for advanced vehicle technology at Toyota’s U.S. unit.  He is reported to express uncertainty at what the size of the plug-in hybrid market will actually be. He goes on to note that there is indeed much enthusiasm about plug-in hybrids right now, but is suspicious as to whether people will adopt these vehicles at the end of the day. This articles other interviewee is Scott Miller, chief executive officer of Synovate Motoresearch, a market research company .  He tells us the interesting fact that the awareness for the idea of plug-in hybrids is low.  A survey is mentioned in which only 10% of respondents said they would be willing to pay a substantial premium in order to get a car with this technology. I think this report does raise some important issues.  Clearly, we here at GM-Volt.com are dedicated enthusiasts.  We also know that >474,000 people voted for GM to produce the Volt on their ...