Chevy Volt: GM's 230 mpg Moon Shot
General Motors, faced with the need to recast itself in the public eye after a near-disastrous run through bankruptcy court, believes it has an ace up its sleeve. The Chevy Volt, an "Extended-Range Electric Vehicle," should reach showrooms by early 2011.
Incredibly, GM says, the Volt should arrive bearing a window sticker with a 230 mpg (city) EPA rating.
The automotive press considers the Volt a potentially revolutionary car, but uncertainty surrounds the project. In-depth magazine profiles have portrayed it as controversial within GM, and the press is as focused on how a major automaker operates -- both internal political battles and engineering challenges -- as it is on the car itself. Many of the engineers behind the famous, failed EV1 are working on the Volt.
If it succeeds, it will matter as a symbol as much as an actual product -- forcing millions to reconsider GM's image, and possibly lifting the perception of rest of the General's model lineup with it.
As the New York Times explains, "If the Volt succeeds, it could put the troubled company on a whole new path after 10 decades tethered to the internal-combustion engine. If it fails, it could drag G.M., and perhaps the entire struggling American auto industry, even further behind Asian competitors."
The Volt may also become the platform for several GM cars. A two-door luxury version, the Cadillac Converj, has begun to make the rounds of the auto show circuit. A European edition, the Opel Ampera, is also planned -- though there are questions about Opel's long-term survival as part of GM's portfolio, so no assumption about the Ampera is safe. Rumors have suggested that a crossover version, likely badged as a Buick, could also appear.
What the Auto Press is Saying:
- With its claimed 230 mpg city rating, "The Volt would dwarf any offering from a mass-market brand, including Toyota Motor Corp.'s iconic Prius. It also could deliver a major boost to GM efforts to cultivate a green image, a key element of the company's restructuring efforts." -- Wall Street Journal
- "In the midst of this corporate chaos, a dedicated group of hundreds of engineers, scientists, designers, technicians and drivers have tried to keep their heads down and out of the line of fire as they worked to make the Volt a production reality. From the time we first saw the original concept, GM has selected a battery supplier (LG Chem), defined the final powertrain configuration and released the production design, among countless other tasks." -- Autoblog
- "Because it will have both an electric and a gasoline motor on board, the Volt will be a hybrid. But it will be like no hybrid on the road today. Existing hybrids are gasoline-powered cars, with an electric assist to improve the gas mileage. The Volt will be an electric-powered car, with a gasoline assist to increase the battery's range."-- Atlantic Monthly
- "The Volt will be a compact five-door hatch, built on the new global small-car architecture that will also underpin future versions of the Saturn Astra and Chevy Cobalt. ... Executed properly, the Volt could be a real game changer." -- Motor Trend
- "A large display screen will likely be standard and allow owners to custom-tailor certain driving and charging parameters. For example, [Volt chief engineer Frank Weber] says you could plug in your car at home and then program it to charge, say five hours later, when off-peak power is cheapest. Sustainable materials are all over the place, from a recycled carpet to soy-based foam seats. ---Popular Mechanics
What is it?
The Chevy Volt is midsize, series-hybrid car. GM prefers to refer to it as "an Extended-Range Electric Vehicle," or E-REV. The distinction from traditional hybrids is important. All of the hybrids you can buy today -- like the Toyota Prius -- are parallel hybrids. They are essentially gasoline-powered cars with an electric motor to boost their gas mileage. The Volt is the opposite. It is a series hybrid -- an electric car with a small gasoline engine to boost its range.
GM says the gasoline engine will do less work in the Volt than in any previous hybrid. The electric motor, engineers claim, will be able to power the car all the way to 100 miles per hour, for up to 40 miles. The gasoline engine is just a generator that kicks in to recharge the batteries when they are near empty. In fact, some analysts believe the Volt may be capable of even longer battery-only cruises. Motor Trend reports, "engineers point out that the 40-mile range statistic bandied about is a conservative one that applies at the end of 10 years and 150,000 miles."
The Volt seats four and is sized somewhere between the small Chevy Cobalt and midsize Chevy Malibu.
The initial Volt concept appeared on the auto show circuit in 2007, and the automotive press has been busy tracking the project's ups and downs ever since. Estimates of the Volt's price, production date, and fuel economy have shifted many times
How Does It Work?
The Chevy Volt will use a new powertrain that GM is referring to as the "Voltec" system. It uses electricity to move the car at all times, and uses an engine as a generator to repenish its batteries. To charge it, owners will plug it into a standard household electrical outlet. When they drive the car, it will use only its electric motor, no matter what speed it is driven, until its battery has less than 30 percent of a full charge remaining.
At that point, a small four-cylinder engine will turn on. That engine will not directly send power to the wheels -- instead, it will act as a generator, recharging the batteries.
According to former GM Vice Chairman Bob Lutz, the Volt will use its GPS system to determine how long to run that engine. "The car will know how far you are from home," Lutz told reporters last September, "and it will only run the gas engine long enough to give you enough charge to get you home where you can actually plug it into the wall outlet. So the car will be smart enough to know where its home base is."
GM engineers estimate that the average driver will be able to travel 40 miles before the gasoline engine even ignites. But the range of the Volt under battery power alone will change based on how much weight it is carrying, how fast it is traveling, and other factors. The 40-mile figure is significant, however, because most Americans drive less than 40 miles per day. For many owners, the Volt would function as an electric car virtually all the time, using gasoline only when they took longer trips than they take on a typical day.
How Many Miles Per Gallon Will the Volt Travel?
General Motors believes the Volt will earn an EPA rating of 230 mpg in city driving. The company hasn't provided an estimate on the car's highway mileage, in part because the EPA is developing a new mileage testing procedure specifically for Volt-like vehicles. GM CEO Fritz Henderson, however, has said the car would carry a combined mileage rating of more than 100 mpg.
The Volt is designed to finish most drives with its batteries holding as little as 30 percent of a full charge. If the Volt is allowed to run the EPA's circuits that way, designers say, it can complete the tests using its gasoline engine less than 15 percent of the time -- and receive an MPG rating in the hundreds.
How Will Its Performance Compare to Other Cars?
Performance figures for the Volt have not been released. Conflicting claims have been published by different media outlets. No one really knows what to expect until we are actually given the chance to drive the vehicle. But it seems unlikely that GM would bring it to market if it couldn't compete with similarly-sized models in the Chevrolet lineup.
Several media outlets have been allowed to test drive Volt development mules. A development mule is an incomplete version of a car that is in development. It uses certain parts of the experimental car, housed within an existing model, for testing purposes. The latest Volt development mules are 2011 Chevy Cruze models with parts of the Volt's electric drivetrain instead of the Cruze's own engine and transmisson.
CNN was allowed to test drive one of these mules in April, and reported, "Under full electric power, which is how most owners will experience it most of the time, the Volt proved surprisingly potent."
Motor Trend commented, "It is an exceptionally quiet drivetrain, with little or no audible whine or hum emanating from the motor and its single-speed planetary reduction gearing. (The Silverado 2-Mode Hybrid sounds more electric.)"
Neither press outlet was allowed to test drive a Volt mule with its gasoline engine active.
Chevy claims that the Volt's electric motor produces the equivalent of 150 horsepower. However, electric-drive cars can accelerate quickly -- the lack of a traditional transmission means less power is lost on the way to the wheels than is true of standard internal combustion engines. One-hundred fifty horsepower could easily feel like more in an electric vehicle, so most automotive experts expect the Volt to feel quick for a midsize car.
Chevrolet claims the Volt has a top speed of 100 mph.
However, CNN's test drivers found serious fault with the mule's handling. "The first time I drove the front wheel drive test vehicle into a turn, the weight came as a surprise," reporter Peter Valdes-Depena wrote. "It felt almost like the small Cruze had turned into something more like a Cadillac the moment I turned the steering wheel."
That heavy feeling is likely a result of the vehicle's weight, and how it is carried.
The U.K.'s AutoCar has claimed the Volt weighs about 3,500 lbs -- slightly more than a Chevy Malibu, though the Volt is a bit smaller in dimension. However, its weight includes a T-shaped battery weighing more than 400 pounds running underneath the passenger compartment, in a position similar to the transmission tunnel in a conventional car. That much weight, carried low and in the center of the car, make the Volt unique. Suspension tuning could ultimately give the car a much better handling feel than the test mule CNN drove.
Theoretically, the Volt could handle quite nimbly. The primary challenge in balancing the handling of most cars is weight distribution -- near 50/50 weight distribution is the goal of every designer, but few reach it. The Volt's heavy, T-shaped battery, however, runs lengthwise underneath the floor of the car -- allowing engineers to balance weight carefully simply by placing the battery in the right location. GM Vehicle Line Director Tony Posawatz told CNN, "The center of gravity of the car, with the center battery pack, it's going to have real great ride and handling."
What Kind of Batteries Does It Use?
The Volt uses lithium-ion batteries. All current hybrids use Nickel-Metal Hydride batteries. Li-ion cells are more efficient than the older batteries. They charge more quickly and hold more power for their weight. Americans are quite familiar with them, and most of us own a few -- they power most cell phones and laptop computers.
However, automotive engineers have been trying for years t make them work for cars, without much success. When built large enough to power a car, Li-ion cells tend to overheat quickly. GM engineers, working with Korean battery developer LG Chem, claim to have produced a Li-ion cell that doesn't overheat.
Engineers from other companies have made similar claims. Nissan has built a Li-ion cell made of laminated sheets, while Mercedes-Benz claims to have developed one that is cooled by the car's climate control systems. But GM hasn't explained how it has solved the heat problem.
How Will It Charge?
Owners will plug the Volt into a standard household outlet to recharge its batteries. It can be plugged into either a standard 120-volt wall outlet, or into a 240-volt outlet like those used to power large appliances. Plugged into a standard 120-volt outlet, the Volt will recharge fully in about eight hours. Plugging the Volt into a 240-volt outlet cuts charging time to less than three hours.
The batteries can also be charged by the gasoline engine onboard the Volt, which will kick in when the battery charge is below 30 percent. As in other hybrids, regenerative braking will help to capture brake energy to recharge batteries as well.
How Much Will It Add to Your Electric Bill?
In a press release published alongside the Volt's official reveal on September 16, 2008, Chevrolet claimed, "The Volt will be less expensive to recharge than purchasing a cup of your favorite coffee. Charging the Volt about once daily will consume less electric energy annually than the average home's refrigerator and freezer units."
Specifically, GM claims "a cost of about 80 cents per day (10 cents per kWh) for a full charge."
The press release continued, "GM estimates that the Volt will cost about two cents per mile to drive while under battery power compared to 12 cents per mile using gasoline priced at $3.60 per gallon. For an average driver who drives 40 miles per day (or 15,000 miles per year), this amounts to a cost savings of $1,500 annually. Using peak electric rates, GM estimates that an electrically driven mile in a Chevy Volt will be about one-sixth of the cost of a conventional gasoline-powered vehicle. The cost savings are even greater when charging during off-peak hours, when electric rates are cheaper."
No one outside of GM has the data to test those figures, so we can't verify any of them.
What Kind of Gasoline Engine Does It Use?
The Volt's gasoline engine is a 1.4-liter four-cylinder model. It can use gasoline or E85 as fuel. This engine, however, doesn't power the wheels of the car. It acts as a generator to recharge the batteries while the car is in motion.
That gasoline engine is connected to a fuel tank that holds only six gallons of gas -- but, working with the car's batteries, that should be sufficient to give it a 400 mile range between fill-ups.
Will Gas Spoil in the Tank if it Doesn't Get Used?
Anyone who's tried to start a lawn mower in the spring after a long winter knows that gas degrades over time when it sits unused. GM says the Volt has a pressurized gas tank that prevents this -- so drivers who actually do go months without hearing the engine kick in should be able to rely on that engine starting when they need it.
What Kind of Transmission Does it Use?
The Volt doesn't have a traditional transmission -- electric drives don't use gears. It will have a selector like those in automatic transmission cars, but with only three settings -- forward, reverse, and a low setting that uses power harvested through regenerative braking to provide a power boost for driving up steep inclines.
What Does It Look Like?
With a low-sloping roofline, a high beltline, unusual shaped windows and aggressive, winking headlights, the Chevy Volt concept revealed on the auto show circuit in 2006 was radically different than cars currently on the road. It had a fastback rear profile and a long hood. The production Volt clearly borrows some design cues from that concept, but is a much more conventional-looking car.
The car's design is mostly the result of aerodynamic research. In fact, Volt chief engineer Bob Boniface told media members in a live chat in August, "Much to my surprise we found that aero performance was critical even at city speeds. I would have expected mass to be more critical than aero at low speeds but it was not true."
So the Volt's design is mostly a function of aerodynamic requirements, but it clearly derives some of its look from conventional Chevy cars.
What Do People Think of the Volt's Appearance?
A model of the production Volt was first spotted on the set of the movie Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen, where the car may have a small role. Later, GM mistakenly released some images of that car to the web.
An early poll on the enthusiast site GM-Volt.com indicates that the design was well-received, but many automotive journalists and bloggers weren't fans. Surveying industry reaction, Edmunds Auto Observer comments: "The most common reactions range in a bandwidth from disappointment to derision. The Volt concept car was widely applauded, and although GM subsequently warned certain aggressive aspects of the Volt concept would be sacrificed on the altar of production-car realities, the overwhelming blandness oozing from the images of what is purported to be the production Volt is inescapable."
What Interior Features Will the Volt Offer?
The Volt's interior is dominated by a contrasting-color center stack that features a touch-screen display. Climate control, navigation, and entertainment features are all controlled through that screen. What isn't controlled through the touch screen is controlled through buttons that are flush with the instrument panel, giving the Volt's controls a look many writers have likened to an iPod. Those buttons are touch-sensitive -- according to GM engineers, they could be set to react to the heat of your fingertips so that you didn't actually have to touch them, just come within milimeters of them -- but the Volt won't be shipped with its buttons set to that sensitivity. They do promise that drivers can operate the buttons with a gloved hand.
A second liquid crystal display sits directly in front of the driver, replacing the traditional cluster of guages. A large shifter is present, but is recessed into the center stack when the car is parked -- and because of the Volt's unique powertrain, its only settings are forward, reverse, and low.
The only production Volt shown to the press so far had an interior done in several tones of grey, with a glossy white center stack. GM says the Volt will be offered in a more extensive array of interior colors than existing GM cars.
GM has said it is looking for opportunities to use recycled and sustainable materials in the Volt's interior as well. Since GM outsources most interior parts rather than producing them internally, final interior details aren't yet settled.
Engineers have said the Volt will offer Bluetooth compatibility, USB audio ports, heated front seats and folding rear seats. Beyond that, details are scarce.
Why Four Seats Instead of Five?
The battery's configuration makes a rear middle seat position impossible.
The Rear Seats Look Narrow -- Will Child Safety Seats Work in the Volt?
GM says it has tested the Volt with typical child safety seats and had no problems installing them.
When Will It Be Available?
Some in the automotive press are calling the Volt a 2010 vehicle. Others label it a 2011. General Motors showed what it called the final production model at its anniversary celebration on Sept. 16, 2008 -- but said at the time that the car was not ready for production, and gave no production date.
GM Vice President Ed Peper told us in February that the Volt was on track for a public debut before the end of 2010, but did not give a prediction as to when the vehicle could reach showrooms.
GM has shown the Volt's body to the press, tested many parts of its drivetrain in a modified Chevy Malibu, designed the Volt's passenger cabin, and developed its chassis, which will also be used in many other 2011 and later small cars. However, the automaker has not put all of those components together into a prototype for the press to drive.
At a press event revealing the production Volt on September 16, 2008, GM said that the Volt would "be built at GM's Detroit-Hamtramck manufacturing facility, subject to GM successfully negotiating satisfactory government incentives" -- so the final manufacturing date may also depend somewhat on politics.
How Much Will the Volt Cost?
GM Officials have given many contradictory statements on the price of the Volt. GM Vice Chairman Bob Lutz himself told David Letterman the price would be $40,000, and with a federal tax rebate of $7,500 available, the car would actually cost buyers $32,500.
It's almost certain that GM will lose money on the first generation of Volts. The company has spent billions on research and development for the new car.
How Could the Volt Change the Automotive Landscape?
General Motors and cross-town rival Chrysler are on government life support for a huge number of reasons, not all of which have much to do with their product lineup. But one of the problems they face is a public perception that the companies build excellent pickup trucks and SUVS, but little else. Although GM makes a handful of well-regarded small and midsize cars (see the Chevy Malibu, near the top of our midsize car rankings), the company's image is still that of the Hummer H2, Cadillac Escalade and Chevy Silverado.
When consumers saw their budgets squeezed by $4 gas in 2008, few turned to Chevy dealerships to help them find a more economical car. When GM's executives appeared before Congress, they faced a tongue-lashing for their lack of competitive fuel-sippers.
The Volt, however, could turn GM's image around. GM has been steadily improving the gas mileage of all of its vehicles and retooling SUV plants to build fuel-efficient small cars. The Volt could give GM an image as an eco-conscious manufacturer of wallet-friendly cars -- even if many of those who come into a dealership to see the Volt ultimately buy a less-expensive 40-plus MPG 2010 Chevy Cruze.
Is GM Developing Any Other Volt-Like Cars?
A luxury coupe version, the Cadillac Converj, has appeared on the auto-show circuit and could see production. A European version, the Opel Ampera, is reportedly headed for production as well.
What Could Keep the Volt From Succeeding?
It could fail to live up its promises. It could be delivered late. Or it could simply be out-competed in the marketplace. As revolutionary as the Volt's design sounds, GM is just one of many automakers working on something revolutionary:
The 2010 Toyota Prius already gets over 50 mpg, and a plug-in version is reportedly under development.
Nissan may offer a pure electric car in the U.S. in 2010.
BMW is testing electric MINI Coopers in California today.
More expensive, high-end cars, like the Tesla Model S and Fisker Karma, may beat the Volt to market.
Even Chrysler, in the same boat as GM with the government, has shown a very Volt-like Chrysler 200C prototype.
What if the Volt reaches showrooms in 2010 as just one of many ultra fuel-efficient, reasonably priced cars? If the bar in the automotive industry has moved and 'the car that could save Detroit' looks average when it arrives, GM could still look behind the times even after investing heavily in this car. Stay tuned...
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