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GM Would Share Volt E-Flex Technology Among Brands 2008-02-11 05:00:01 Some GM news coming out of the North American Dealers Association, besides GM CEO Wagoner asking dealers to fight state level emissions regulations, had to do with the Volt. A report noted that dealers were told by GM that brands other than Chevrolet could also one day get E-Flex technology.  This shouldn’t of course surprise us as GM has indeed already shown us Saturn Flextreme and Cadillac Provoq concepts. Certainly since the Volt may be the holy grail of success for GM, telling worried Pontiac dealers they may too one day get E-Flex on their showroom floors are important words of hope. How about this for an idea?  Should GM license E-Flex to other manufacturers the way Toyota does it’s hybrid system? I didn’t think of it.  A reader once emailed me that he was actually invited to a focus group to discuss this proposal. Source (Autonews) ...

Chevy Volt A123/Continental Battery Pack will be Tested in Michigan 2008-02-10 09:26:21 Lyle Dennis outside the Warren Michigan battery lab building Recently we heard that GM had received it’s first new prototype lithium-ion battery pack from the A123 Systems (battery cell maker)/ Continental Automotive Inc (pack integrator) and that it had arrived in Germany on January 31st, on schedule. Two packs from the other team, LG Chem (battery cell maker)/ Compact Power, Inc. (pack integrator), have been in GMs Warren, Michigan testing compound for months. As some may know, I got to see the pack tested firsthand there (see post). We are interested to see the new pack and know more about how its testing will take place. Unfortunately, no pictures yet, but I am told by E-Flex spokesman Rob Peterson, “The pack will eventually be tested at our facilities in Warren - we want to test this battery on the same cyclers with the same procedures so it can be fairly compared with the CPI pack.” I have also been told that a second A123/Conti pack exists and is either in tra ...

Chevy Dealers Need a Jolt from the Volt 2008-02-09 02:00:47 GM relies on its dealers to sell cars to consumers, and the dealers rely on GM to produce good products, brands, and advertising. As U.S. sales declined over the years dealers also suffered. GM is considered by many to be in the midst of a turnaround spearheaded by Rick Wagoner, in his role since 2000. Clearly transforming themselves into a green company is a major component of this turnaround along with increasing poructivity, decreasing costs, and building better cars. Whereas the Chevy Volt has become the object of our desires for its ability to displace petroleum, it also may be becoming a beacon of hope for Chevy dealers. An article in Automotive News features an interview with Greg Heinrich, co-chairman of the Chevrolet dealer council. The discussion covers several problems the dealers face including the fact that there are 4000 of them as compared to Toyota’s 1500, and that their rents are high. When asked what the Volt could do for Chevy dealers, Mr. Heinrich replied, &l ...

Video: The Worst Chevy Volt TV Commercial Imaginable 2008-02-08 20:18:13 There’s no bigger a fan of the Volt than me, and I’m happy Chevy is advertising a car that doesn’t exist yet, but couldn’t GM spend their money better than on this commercial? There certainly have been better ones before (see post). [UPDATE - GM sources have confirmed that this is indeed an official Chevy Volt commercial.  The above picture is a still from the video.  If you do not see the YouTube video below, go to this link:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBXK4EE7Lg8]   (Either JavaScript is not active or you are using an old version of Adobe Flash Player. Please install the newest Flash Player.) ...

New Study: Using U.S. Farmlands for Biofuel Production will Increase Global Greenhouse Gas Emissions 2008-02-07 23:01:14 Ethanol supply produced from corn grown on U.S. croplands has been increasing and is thought by some as an opportunity to reduce petroleum consumption. Indeed carmakers like GM have been promoting E85 engines, and the U.S. government has been subsidizing farmers to produce corn. The use of corn ethanol as being net energy positive is controversial with estimates ranging from 1 to 1 - 1 to 1.3 in terms of energy put in to energy gained. Burning ethanol produced from corn has been proposed to have a net decrease on carbon emissions, the theory being that the corn absorbs CO2 from the atmosphere as it grows, releasing it as in burns in a 1 to 1 ratio, whereas fossil fuel use produces new atmospheric carbon dioxide (greenhouse gas) from sequestered stores. Today the leading journal Science published an expedited study which calls this second potential benefit into question. The study by Searchinger et. al. actually looks at the global effect when U.S. farmers use land to produce ethanol ...

Production not Chemistry is Reason for Delay in Mass Producing Plug-in Cars like the Chevy Volt 2008-02-06 23:01:32 Popular Mechanics has just published an article outlining the race to mass producing plug-in cars. The article includes a few quotes from GM’s advanced battery director Denise Gray with whom I have spoken on several occasions. The article reviews some of the lithium-ion battery chemistries and correctly notes that its only the laptop-type (cobalt oxide) that are subject to thermal runaway. Denise Gray tells them that GM is currently in the “middle-stages” of R&D on the Chevy Volt. The article sort of incorrectly reports that Bob Lutz said driveable mules were delayed, read correct details here: Mule Clarification Post Gray also tells the author that the batteries will have to be produced in high quanities but also high quality. An unnamed Toyota source indicates that the delay to production is due to the scaling-up time need to reach high production quantities and not issues of chemistry. This is true in part, but see this prior discussion from A123’s Ric F ...

The E-Flex Cadillac Provoq and the GM Fifth Generation Fuel Cell 2008-02-06 05:00:37 The Cadillac Provoq is GM’s latest E-Flex concept car, a luxury crossover with all wheel drive and fuel cell range-extender. Nick Zielinski who used to be the ICE Volt’s chief engineer is now the chief engineer of the hydrogen Volt and Provoq, as well as the fuel cell Equinox. I had a few moments to speak with Nick at the Provoq Detroit unveiling (see post). What brought about the Provoq design? We’ve been intrigued with trying doing something with Cadillac, its our high line vehicle, our technology leader, taking our most advanced technology propulsion system and marrying that with Cadillac made a lot of sense. When you figure fuel cells as we introduce them are going to be low volume and they’re going to be more expensive than traditional propulsion systems. So it made sense from a marketing standpoint to link up with a high line vehicle. It was just a nice marriage between the image of Cadillac and the technology of our most advanced propulsion system. ...

Q & A with Bob Reuter Chief Engineer, Plug-in Saturn VUE 2008-02-04 23:01:31 GM has announced its intention to produce a plug-in Saturn VUE with a large lithium ion battery married to a 2-mode hybrid drivetrain.  This car quite possibly could be the first-ever plug-in hybrid that gets brought to the U.S. market.  I had the chance to ask the vehicle’s chief engineer a few questions. When will the plug-in VUE come to market? We haven’t announced a production date yet. Do you have a time frame? For the plug-in, it will go into production as early as 2010. If you look at the development path for the Volt and you look at the development path of the plug-in VUE, they are similar. Can you tell us what the plug-in VUE’s battery size will be? We’re not going to go into that level of detail right now. Its definitely going to be lithium-ion. Is a 10-mile EV range what is expected? That’s a very reasonable expectation. When you do a plug-in what you want to do is you want to maximize the amount of range you can get from a charge-depletion m ... Amp

One-on-One with Jon Lauckner, GM VP of Global Program Management, Part 5 2008-02-04 05:00:54 This is the final segment of my interview with Jon Lauckner, GMs VP of global program management, considered Bob Lutz’ first deputy and who has been very involved with the Volt project from day one. What are the terms of GMs battery contracts with the battery suppliers? ‘A’ we shouldn’t talk about what we’ve agreed with the companies not to talk about, ‘B ‘ lets put it this way, when their is intellectual property generated, nobody’s really anxious to see it just floating around somewhere. Were going to spend a fair amount of talent and treasure developing this battery pack and we aren’t anxious to see everybody and their brother walk in after its all done and say “me too, me too” Can you anticipate the possibility of working with both teams in the final production vehicles? Oh sure. I would say we haven’t decided exactly what we are going to do, we are going to let the development results speak for themselves and ...

Chevy Volt Design Freeze within Weeks 2008-02-03 06:33:42 A report out of Australia mentioned a few new facts about the Volt, garnered from original interviews with GM executives. We have heard that the Chevy Volt’s design team, headed by Bob Boniface is very close to a final design for the production vehicle. Just how close? Well, according to this article: “…the styling for the 2011 Volt will be frozen in the next few weeks, while its overall packaging will also be set in stone soon after.” Dont be taken aback by the 2011. The car is intended for release in the end of 2010 as a 2011 model year. As to when GM will show us this whole new design…I don’t know yet. Source (GoAuto) Thanks to Brian M for the tip! ... Design

Does GM have a Geographical Rollout Plan for the First Volts? 2008-02-02 05:00:17 We patiently wait for the Volts to be built, and hope they will be available late 2010 as promised. We have heard for months that GM hopes to produce Volts in the tens of thousands; in fact 60,000 was a number tossed around previously (see post), and exec will tell you themselves they would be happy to sell them in the millions. We are also aware that the first production models may have to roll out slowly with plans to ramp up to scale as demand requires. Yesterday an article cited the Hawaii Automobile Dealers Association as reporting they expect to have 200 Chevy Volts in 2010. Does this mean GM is actually orchestrating the geography of the initial rollouts or is it just a baseless claim. I cannot say based on any discussions I have had. What do you think? Source (The Honolulu Advertiser) Thanks to Lyle L. for the tip! ...

Breaking: Chevy Volt A123/Continental Prototype Lithium-ion Battery Pack Delivered! 2008-01-31 14:30:06 The next major Volt milestone has been achieved. GM has confirmed receiving the first Chevy Volt specific lithium-ion prototype battery pack from the Continental/A123 Systems production team. The pack was delivered to GM’s Mainz Kastel laboratory in Germany on the morning of January 31st. GM already has at least two prototype packs from the LG Chem/Compact Power production team since the first was delivered on October 31st. The Conti/A123 pack was expected in January and is thus on-time, therfore keeping the entire vehicles production schedule on track. GM had planned to evaluate both teams packs until this summer when they will decide on moving either one or both towards production. Todays is an extremely important landmark in the Chevy Volt development story as it further validates the concept, now that two independent teams have shown they can build properly behaving 16kWh lithium-ion packs. ...

Lutz: Forty-Mile Electric Range Mules in March or April 2008-01-30 23:00:35 GM Vice-Chairman Bob Lutz told reporters in Flint, Michigan on Tuesday that the Volt remains on-schedule. He said: “We’re going to prove the skeptics wrong,” and “I hope to drive the 40 miles electrically by March or April and by June we’ll have running prototypes for the press.” And for those of you wondering about the first prototype packs from A123/Continental…I have heard delivery is immediately imminent…stay tuned. Source (ABC12.com) ...

GM’s CFO Thinks There’s no Recession but Car Prices will Rise 2008-01-30 05:00:22 GM CEO Wagoner and CFO Henderson GM CFO Fritz Henderson had a luncheon with reporters yesterday and made a couple of financial comments. He indicated that although the housing crisis will be a drag on the economy, and that the government needs to soothe public fears, he does not believe a recession is underway. He also indicated that due to less manufacturing capacity and therefore tighter inventories and increasing costs of raw materials, combined with increased spending on new high technologies, that car prices may increase. He couldn’t specify when that increase might occur. Sources (Reuters) and (AP) ...

Chevy Volt will Need Special Low Power Windshield Wipers and Audio System 2008-01-29 05:00:00 Bob Lutz is clearly a guy who tells it like it is. When GMs father of the Volt gives an interview about the car its always worth listening closely, as what you get will be highly factual. The Lansing State Journal published a very brief Q and A with Mr. Lutz, and thats where this nugget was found. As we know to allow maximum battery range in the Volt, aerodynamic efficiency has to come first. In second place is to minimize electrical draw. Per Mr.Lutz: We are working on low-voltage draw windshield wipers. And even more interesting - and I didn’t know this - these high-powered stereo systems that everybody is putting in their car now? Those have a tremendous electrical draw and will actually affect your mileage if you crank the volume up loud enough. All of that stuff, plus all of the software we have to write for the interaction of the various elements of the car with each other. Source (Lansing State Journal) ...