Tweet
Volt on test track & hitting the mark
From the Auto Observer industry rag;
Chevy Volt: Traveling Public Roads and Hitting Its Mark
WARREN, Michigan -- General Motors inched closer to making the Chevrolet Volt a reality in November 2010 as the vehicle's innovative gas-electric powertrain is being test-driven for the first time on public roads and is hitting its target of 40 miles on pure electric power. "Today is a big day," GM Vice Chairman Bob Lutz told Edmunds' AutoObserver in an exclusive interview Tuesday. "Today is the first day it is running on the street on battery power."
Lutz said the Volt's powertrain, comprised of an advanced lithium-ion battery and a small gasoline engine, was installed into a mule vehicle and is being driven on public roads around the automaker's proving grounds in Milford, Michigan. More important, Lutz said, the battery is hitting GM's goal of 40 miles on pure electric power.
"It is reliably meeting its objectives," Lutz confirmed. "Even with a rough calibration, even with the wrong drive unit, the wrong body, etc. etc., it has been hitting its 40 miles on electric power."
Tuesday's road test comes after last week's testing of the Volt powertrain on a dynamometer that simulated real-world conditions, such as varying road surfaces and changing ambient temperatures.
Proving Lithium-Ion Batteries
The successful test of the lithium-ion battery is a giant step in making the Volt a reality. Many critics insisted lithium-ion batteries were a huge risk. However, since GM announced its plans to use a lithium-ion battery in the Volt and signed development contracts with battery makers, others have followed suit.
Only this week, Renault and Nissan announced plans for an all-electric vehicle to go on sale in 2010 using a lithium-ion battery. Mitsubishi already has a fully electric vehicle in Japan running on lithium-ion batteries. Germany's Audi plans to use the batteries in its upcoming hybrid. At the same time, Toyota has said its next-generation Prius hybrid, reportedly debuting at the Detroit auto show in January and going on sale in 2009, will stick with nickel-metal hydride batteries instead of lithium-ion though the Japanese automaker is known to be working on the more advanced battery.
"The reason we point this out (others using lithium-ion) shows the fallibility of Toyota and the American press, which is totally enamored with Toyota," said the always outspoken and opinionated Lutz. "When we say lithium-ion is good and Toyota says they don't trust them and they are unproven, people say we're taking a huge risk."
An assumed risk of lithium-ion batteries is its thermal properties. Frank Weber (FAY-ber), imported from GM's European operations to be global vehicle line executive and chief engineer for of E-Flex Systems Development Team (E-Flex is the GM word for the Volt's gas-electric powertrain), told AutoObserver last August that the biggest challenge is to manage the thermal dynamics of the batteries so that the batteries are the same temperature.
And Lutz insists the lithium-ion battery on the road has passed that test. Lutz, meantime, won't confirm which supplier's battery is in the mule being tested. GM has development contracts with multiple battery makers. Lutz confirmed that in GM's dynamometer tests last week of the Volt's lithium-ion batteries, engineers raised ambient temperatures and shut off the cooling system. The result was what GM had hoped: The battery showed only a slight rise in temperature and the heat was consistent across all of the battery cells with no pockets of intense heat.
Challenges Other Than the Battery Remain
"I can almost say the battery is the least of our problems," Lutz told AutoObserver.
That's not to say GM doesn't face huge challenges in making the Volt work. The challenge now, Lutz said, is the smooth integration of the battery with the gasoline engine that, unlike traditional hybrids that use a gas engine to power the vehicle, kicks in to generate electricity to feed the battery.
GM engineers are grappling with such questions as: When does the gas engine cut in? How long does it stay on? Is it better to run at lesser power and charge the battery slowly or run at peak power and charge the battery fast? How does it deal with extreme cold days in Alaska or North Dakota, which require the gasoline engine to start the car and warm the battery? If the car's GPS or OnStar tells the car it is close to home, is there a way for it to tell the engine to charge the engine just enough to get home and plug in versus charging the whole battery using gasoline in the last 15 minutes? How does it handle wide variations in temperatures with accessories on?
"All of that requires reams and reams and reams of software," Lutz said. "Our task would be simplified if we didn't have the range-extending gasoline engine and the only question would be how fast can we productionize it. Then we could devote all of our time to optimizing the battery. But then we wouldn't have an extended-range vehicle.
"And then," he added, "you'd be back to the thing that has limited the acceptance of electric vehicles: It only gets 80, 100 or 120 miles of range and buyers worry 'what happens if I run out and I can't walk to the nearest gas station to get a 5-gallon can of electricity?'."
Target: November 2010
Lutz said the successful dynamometer and road tests increase GM's confidence that the Chevrolet Volt will debut in November 2010.
"Three months ago if you asked Frank Weber 'November 2010?' he'd get flustered and say he wouldn't answer until he knew more," said Lutz. "Now if you ask him the same question, he's calm and relaxed and says unless we encounter some completely unforeseen obstacle - November 2010 looks good."
Intense Interest at the Highest Levels
Indeed, Lutz said, that's the answer Weber gave GM Chairman Rick Wagoner in his monthly update on Volt only Tuesday morning - November 2010 looked good.
"I'm pleased to say there's no other project Rick spends as much time on than Volt," said Lutz. "He gets a monthly two-hour update from the Volt team. He's as close to Volt as I am. In fact, I have to run hard to stay ahead of Rick in my knowledge level so that I can still answer questions."
Indeed, Volt could be a game-changer -- and the vehicle that defines the legacy of both Bob Lutz and Rick Wagoner.
WARREN, Michigan -- General Motors inched closer to making the Chevrolet Volt a reality in November 2010 as the vehicle's innovative gas-electric powertrain is being test-driven for the first time on public roads and is hitting its target of 40 miles on pure electric power. "Today is a big day," GM Vice Chairman Bob Lutz told Edmunds' AutoObserver in an exclusive interview Tuesday. "Today is the first day it is running on the street on battery power."
Lutz said the Volt's powertrain, comprised of an advanced lithium-ion battery and a small gasoline engine, was installed into a mule vehicle and is being driven on public roads around the automaker's proving grounds in Milford, Michigan. More important, Lutz said, the battery is hitting GM's goal of 40 miles on pure electric power.
"It is reliably meeting its objectives," Lutz confirmed. "Even with a rough calibration, even with the wrong drive unit, the wrong body, etc. etc., it has been hitting its 40 miles on electric power."
Tuesday's road test comes after last week's testing of the Volt powertrain on a dynamometer that simulated real-world conditions, such as varying road surfaces and changing ambient temperatures.
Proving Lithium-Ion Batteries
The successful test of the lithium-ion battery is a giant step in making the Volt a reality. Many critics insisted lithium-ion batteries were a huge risk. However, since GM announced its plans to use a lithium-ion battery in the Volt and signed development contracts with battery makers, others have followed suit.
Only this week, Renault and Nissan announced plans for an all-electric vehicle to go on sale in 2010 using a lithium-ion battery. Mitsubishi already has a fully electric vehicle in Japan running on lithium-ion batteries. Germany's Audi plans to use the batteries in its upcoming hybrid. At the same time, Toyota has said its next-generation Prius hybrid, reportedly debuting at the Detroit auto show in January and going on sale in 2009, will stick with nickel-metal hydride batteries instead of lithium-ion though the Japanese automaker is known to be working on the more advanced battery.
"The reason we point this out (others using lithium-ion) shows the fallibility of Toyota and the American press, which is totally enamored with Toyota," said the always outspoken and opinionated Lutz. "When we say lithium-ion is good and Toyota says they don't trust them and they are unproven, people say we're taking a huge risk."
An assumed risk of lithium-ion batteries is its thermal properties. Frank Weber (FAY-ber), imported from GM's European operations to be global vehicle line executive and chief engineer for of E-Flex Systems Development Team (E-Flex is the GM word for the Volt's gas-electric powertrain), told AutoObserver last August that the biggest challenge is to manage the thermal dynamics of the batteries so that the batteries are the same temperature.
And Lutz insists the lithium-ion battery on the road has passed that test. Lutz, meantime, won't confirm which supplier's battery is in the mule being tested. GM has development contracts with multiple battery makers. Lutz confirmed that in GM's dynamometer tests last week of the Volt's lithium-ion batteries, engineers raised ambient temperatures and shut off the cooling system. The result was what GM had hoped: The battery showed only a slight rise in temperature and the heat was consistent across all of the battery cells with no pockets of intense heat.
Challenges Other Than the Battery Remain
"I can almost say the battery is the least of our problems," Lutz told AutoObserver.
That's not to say GM doesn't face huge challenges in making the Volt work. The challenge now, Lutz said, is the smooth integration of the battery with the gasoline engine that, unlike traditional hybrids that use a gas engine to power the vehicle, kicks in to generate electricity to feed the battery.
GM engineers are grappling with such questions as: When does the gas engine cut in? How long does it stay on? Is it better to run at lesser power and charge the battery slowly or run at peak power and charge the battery fast? How does it deal with extreme cold days in Alaska or North Dakota, which require the gasoline engine to start the car and warm the battery? If the car's GPS or OnStar tells the car it is close to home, is there a way for it to tell the engine to charge the engine just enough to get home and plug in versus charging the whole battery using gasoline in the last 15 minutes? How does it handle wide variations in temperatures with accessories on?
"All of that requires reams and reams and reams of software," Lutz said. "Our task would be simplified if we didn't have the range-extending gasoline engine and the only question would be how fast can we productionize it. Then we could devote all of our time to optimizing the battery. But then we wouldn't have an extended-range vehicle.
"And then," he added, "you'd be back to the thing that has limited the acceptance of electric vehicles: It only gets 80, 100 or 120 miles of range and buyers worry 'what happens if I run out and I can't walk to the nearest gas station to get a 5-gallon can of electricity?'."
Target: November 2010
Lutz said the successful dynamometer and road tests increase GM's confidence that the Chevrolet Volt will debut in November 2010.
"Three months ago if you asked Frank Weber 'November 2010?' he'd get flustered and say he wouldn't answer until he knew more," said Lutz. "Now if you ask him the same question, he's calm and relaxed and says unless we encounter some completely unforeseen obstacle - November 2010 looks good."
Intense Interest at the Highest Levels
Indeed, Lutz said, that's the answer Weber gave GM Chairman Rick Wagoner in his monthly update on Volt only Tuesday morning - November 2010 looked good.
"I'm pleased to say there's no other project Rick spends as much time on than Volt," said Lutz. "He gets a monthly two-hour update from the Volt team. He's as close to Volt as I am. In fact, I have to run hard to stay ahead of Rick in my knowledge level so that I can still answer questions."
Indeed, Volt could be a game-changer -- and the vehicle that defines the legacy of both Bob Lutz and Rick Wagoner.