Chevy Volt powertrain mule – Click above for high-res gallery
It's been 28 months since we watched Bob Lutz drive onto the stage at Cobo Hall in Detroit and step out of the Chevrolet Volt concept. In the intervening period, a corporate drama of epic proportions has transpired as Lutz has gone into semi-retirement, Rick Wagoner has been ousted as CEO and the U.S. government and the UAW are about to take a 90% ownership stake in General Motors.
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. After more than a year of pestering GM, the call finally came to get behind the wheel of a Volt prototype. Read the results after the jump.
We arrived at the design building on GM's tech center campus in the middle of a torrential downpour where we were escorted to the executive garage. There we found two of the 30+ second-generation Volt mules that are running around in Warren, Milford and other locations undergoing testing and development. Like their four-legged namesakes, mules are a cross-breed of different vehicles, and because of the lead times and testing required to bring a mass production vehicle to market, development is done in parallel on multiple paths. Automakers build these prototypes by taking an existing vehicle and adapting new components to road test the systems before the complete vehicle is ready for production.
For the Volt program, the first-generation powertrain mules were built using previous-generation Malibu body shells with the Voltec (E-Flex) powertrain -- the so-called Mali-Volts we first saw about a year ago. Those vehicles originally ran in late 2007, with the engine-generator and electric motor as well as a small hybrid battery to start development of the powertrain control system. Later, the full Volt T-shaped battery pack was installed and in 2008, the second-generation mules were built using the body of the new Chevy Cruze. Unlike the larger mid-size Malibu, the Cruze is based on the same Delta global compact platform as GM's plug-in savior, which is closer in size and weight to the Volt and was used throughout winter testing in 2008-2009.
The last I heard the Volt was going to be around $40k. Charging the battery via house current costs more than gas per unit of energy. It will be an expensive curiousity that will not be a business success. Too big, too expensive, too late.
I think hybrid are a passing fad, they are all to complex, and when total life cycle environmental inpact is calculate will be shown to be less green than a simple small light gas car.
"Charging the battery via house current costs more than gas per unit of energy."
I don't think you heard right. If charging the car to full would cost more than 40 dollars, than this Volt should have been dead in the board room. You are also not factoring the trend towards alternative energies that have much less impact on the environment.
The biggest hurdles are not even the car makers. 1. Widespread clean energy sources. 2. Battery technology
Charging the battery costs less than $1 per day in household electricity. With a 40 mile daily range on electric only, the unit cost is MUCH less than gasoline.
Size of the vehicle is about the size of a Cobalt. Why is that too big?
And too late??? This is not a hybrid. It runs ONLY on the electric motors. The gas engine is only used to charge the battery, not drive the wheels.
Then you trotted out the old, "(W)hen total life cycle environmental inpact is calculate will be shown to be less green than a simple small light gas car" straw man.
Bob's comment on charging the battery was correct. It is the "per unit of energy" statement that makes it correct Only that is if you compare the price to charge a battery to a gallon of gas in energy potential and not how much work one gallon of gasoline can actually do.
Always one for good argument, I will happily take this one on:
One gallon of gasoline has the equivalent of 33.4 Kwh POTENTIAL. More than twice the size of the Volt's battery pack. Gas is currently $2.25/gallon and is about 6.7 cent/Kwh
Sounds great right? The problem is in a modern car only about 27% of that potential is turned into mechanical energy. Whoops! Gas jumps to 24.8cents/Kwh.
Average National Prices for electricity are currently at 8.9cents/Kwh. Even factoring for only 80% efficiency for the Volt the totals are: Gas - 24.8cents/Kwh Volt - 10.7cents/Kwh
Let's forget the possibility of Wind, PV or Hyrdo installed at the owner's home. Also let's forget that Volt will be far more efficient per in terms of Kwh than a gasoline car. Any questions?
Addendum: For your consideration here are two vehicles, one EV one Gas. 2001 RAV4 (gasoline) - $1827 = annual gas cost @ $2.80/gal 652.5 = gal per year assuming 15000 mi year. 8.0 = tons of GHG from said gas. 16,000 = lbs of GHG from said gas. 24.5 = lbs of GHG per gal of gas. 0.19 = lbs of GHG per oz of gas.
2001 RAV 4 (EV) - $391 = annual elect cost @ $0.08 / kWh 4887.5 = kWh per year assuming 15000 mi year. 4.2 = tons of GHG from said elect. 8,400 = lbs of GHG from said elect. 1.7 = lbs of GHG per kWh of elect.
Charging your car to "full" would cost $40, if full got you 500km like a full tank of gas does. Currently, a car with that kind of range needs another car to haul the battery..
If you got 500km, it would take about $7 worth of electricity. (about 70kWh at about $0.10 per kWh). I make up these figures from the Tesla which gets about 400km on 53kWh.
Anyone who trying to compare the range of a 2 seater carbon fiber Elise with no gas motor to haul around to this tank pretty much lost the argument right there. The volt would require a 100 kwh battery pack MINIMUM to get 500km range.
I compared the two, but not directly, as you can see, I factored in more kWh than a Tesla would require.
How about this: The Volt only uses 8kWh of its pack. It goes 40 miles on that pack. So to go 500km (310 miles) would take 64kWh. Which is less than estimated.
Either way, even with a 100kWh pack, it still would only take a bit over $10 to fill the tank. This is far from your $40 figure you made up.
Does anyone understand economics on this site? What happens when the demand for electricity goes up............. Prices go up. if electric cars were the way of the future you can expect higher electric bills for everything. Also Soar, wind, and water power arent going to be good enough. So you will need to either build nuclear plants (which for some reason everyone hates?) or use more fossil fuels to generate this electricity. Im a firm believer that GM is wasting there time with the volt. Honda is on the right track with Hydrogen Fuel Cells. Like TopGear said: Electric cars are like taking a step back in the automobile world and hydrogen is like stepping into equal ground.
Are you just making up this garbage to make yourself sound more interesting? Why? Charging your battery will cost you an estimated $1 a day, not more than gasoline.
"The last I heard the Volt was going to be around $40k"
AFTER the $7500 incentive. Note it's mumbled, or written off quickly. Sticker is going to be very close to fifty and at that price this greeny will forgo first gen hiccups and just buy a Q5 TDI instead.
Zamafir, nobody knows how much the Volt will be exactly. It's interesting how you automatically assume the glass is half full and the Volt will be $40,000 AFTER tax credits.
The Tesla Roadster is also magically going up in price by requiring customers to buy optional features that used to be standard equipment. And before you know it, people will be saying that the Tesla Model S will be $50,000 before the tax credit and gets a 300-mile range for that price.
Too bad it's $50,000 AFTER the tax credit, and the basic 160-mile battery pack which will leave you stranded if you drive too spiritedly or run the air conditioner or heater too long.
Battery economics isn't expensive on the charging side(yet). It is cheaper than gas, but when you factor in the huge expense of the battery and it's consumable nature, then the expense kicks in in a large way.
Say the GM volt battery costs $10000 dollars. Lasts 2500 cycles. Costs $1.00 to charge and gives you 40 miles
So 40 miles costs you $1 for electricity + 10000/2500 = $4 for battery life cycle consumption.
So 40 miles cost you $5, not just the $1 electricity charge.
The battery is a massive consumable costs that proponents fail to take into account.
Of interesting note is the fact that electricity is actually selling for around $.03 right now. It's also worth considering that electricity is cheap because oil is cheap... Where do you think power plants get the power to run their generators? Most run off of either heating oil or natural gas.
Cars are only a tiny part of our nation's dependence on oil. Policy-makers need to focus on the big picture rather than stuffing the autos with the bill and then giving them money to keep them afloat when their policies put the big 3 on death watch.
We really need some fresh thinkers in Congress (on both sides of the aisle).
Watch, 'Who Killed the Electric Car' from your local Library, YouTube, eBay, Amazon, etc... You will see that the Electic Vehicle 'Fad' has passed... (according to Gas and Oil Companies, many of which are starting to invest in energy alternatives as a potential future 'Hedge' or worthy income stream...) and yet SOME of the general public is starting to understand and appreciate that EVs will not ever be a 'Fad', and Hybrids are helping us to 'bridge the gap', so to speak... Good Hybrids and Better EVs will be a strong force in the future of many viable and successful companies and customers... Electric Vehicles are much more viable than Hydrogen Fuel Cells will be (in our life time). I believe HFC Vehicles are about as close to (everyday consumer) market as aircraft turbine cars and yet-to-be-developed vehicles powered via plutonium, uranium, or your cranium...
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 6)
Bob Zeliff 8:09PM (4/28/2009)
The last I heard the Volt was going to be around $40k. Charging the battery via house current costs more than gas per unit of energy. It will be an expensive curiousity that will not be a business success. Too big, too expensive, too late.
I think hybrid are a passing fad, they are all to complex, and when total life cycle environmental inpact is calculate will be shown to be less green than a simple small light gas car.
Reply
2004m3driver 8:18PM (4/28/2009)
"Charging the battery via house current costs more than gas per unit of energy."
I don't think you heard right. If charging the car to full would cost more than 40 dollars, than this Volt should have been dead in the board room. You are also not factoring the trend towards alternative energies that have much less impact on the environment.
The biggest hurdles are not even the car makers.
1. Widespread clean energy sources.
2. Battery technology
Tom 8:20PM (4/28/2009)
Charging the battery costs less than $1 per day in household electricity. With a 40 mile daily range on electric only, the unit cost is MUCH less than gasoline.
Size of the vehicle is about the size of a Cobalt. Why is that too big?
And too late??? This is not a hybrid. It runs ONLY on the electric motors. The gas engine is only used to charge the battery, not drive the wheels.
asuka 8:23PM (4/28/2009)
"I think hybrid are a passing fad"
LOL
Then you trotted out the old, "(W)hen total life cycle environmental inpact is calculate will be shown to be less green than a simple small light gas car" straw man.
Double LOL.
LaughingTooHard 9:01PM (4/28/2009)
Bob's comment on charging the battery was correct. It is the "per unit of energy" statement that makes it correct Only that is if you compare the price to charge a battery to a gallon of gas in energy potential and not how much work one gallon of gasoline can actually do.
Always one for good argument, I will happily take this one on:
One gallon of gasoline has the equivalent of 33.4 Kwh POTENTIAL.
More than twice the size of the Volt's battery pack.
Gas is currently $2.25/gallon and is about 6.7 cent/Kwh
Sounds great right? The problem is in a modern car only about 27% of that potential is turned into mechanical energy. Whoops! Gas jumps to 24.8cents/Kwh.
Average National Prices for electricity are currently at 8.9cents/Kwh.
Even factoring for only 80% efficiency for the Volt the totals are:
Gas - 24.8cents/Kwh
Volt - 10.7cents/Kwh
Let's forget the possibility of Wind, PV or Hyrdo installed at the owner's home.
Also let's forget that Volt will be far more efficient per in terms of Kwh than a gasoline car. Any questions?
My work here is done.
Please double check my math
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gasoline-equivalent_gallon
http://www.eia.doe.gov/fuelelectric.html
http://www.fueleconomy.gov
Addendum:
For your consideration here are two vehicles, one EV one Gas.
2001 RAV4 (gasoline)
-
$1827 = annual gas cost @ $2.80/gal
652.5 = gal per year assuming 15000 mi year.
8.0 = tons of GHG from said gas.
16,000 = lbs of GHG from said gas.
24.5 = lbs of GHG per gal of gas.
0.19 = lbs of GHG per oz of gas.
2001 RAV 4 (EV)
-
$391 = annual elect cost @ $0.08 / kWh
4887.5 = kWh per year assuming 15000 mi year.
4.2 = tons of GHG from said elect.
8,400 = lbs of GHG from said elect.
1.7 = lbs of GHG per kWh of elect.
tankd0g 9:35PM (4/28/2009)
Charging your car to "full" would cost $40, if full got you 500km like a full tank of gas does. Currently, a car with that kind of range needs another car to haul the battery..
why not the LS2LS7? 9:48PM (4/28/2009)
If you got 500km, it would take about $7 worth of electricity. (about 70kWh at about $0.10 per kWh). I make up these figures from the Tesla which gets about 400km on 53kWh.
It's not useful to make up false info.
tankd0g 10:14PM (4/28/2009)
Anyone who trying to compare the range of a 2 seater carbon fiber Elise with no gas motor to haul around to this tank pretty much lost the argument right there. The volt would require a 100 kwh battery pack MINIMUM to get 500km range.
why not the LS2LS7? 10:39PM (4/28/2009)
I compared the two, but not directly, as you can see, I factored in more kWh than a Tesla would require.
How about this:
The Volt only uses 8kWh of its pack. It goes 40 miles on that pack. So to go 500km (310 miles) would take 64kWh. Which is less than estimated.
Either way, even with a 100kWh pack, it still would only take a bit over $10 to fill the tank. This is far from your $40 figure you made up.
Dan 11:02PM (4/28/2009)
Does anyone understand economics on this site? What happens when the demand for electricity goes up............. Prices go up. if electric cars were the way of the future you can expect higher electric bills for everything. Also Soar, wind, and water power arent going to be good enough. So you will need to either build nuclear plants (which for some reason everyone hates?) or use more fossil fuels to generate this electricity. Im a firm believer that GM is wasting there time with the volt. Honda is on the right track with Hydrogen Fuel Cells. Like TopGear said: Electric cars are like taking a step back in the automobile world and hydrogen is like stepping into equal ground.
Nick 11:40PM (4/28/2009)
@Bob Zeliff
Are you just making up this garbage to make yourself sound more interesting? Why?
Charging your battery will cost you an estimated $1 a day, not more than gasoline.
zamafir 1:11AM (4/29/2009)
"The last I heard the Volt was going to be around $40k"
AFTER the $7500 incentive. Note it's mumbled, or written off quickly. Sticker is going to be very close to fifty and at that price this greeny will forgo first gen hiccups and just buy a Q5 TDI instead.
why not the LS2LS7? 1:45AM (4/29/2009)
Zamafir:
http://www.autoblog.com/2008/06/19/lutz-volt-will-cost-40-000-first-gen-will-lose-money/
Lutz said otherwise.
Gary 2:08AM (4/29/2009)
Zamafir, nobody knows how much the Volt will be exactly. It's interesting how you automatically assume the glass is half full and the Volt will be $40,000 AFTER tax credits.
The Tesla Roadster is also magically going up in price by requiring customers to buy optional features that used to be standard equipment. And before you know it, people will be saying that the Tesla Model S will be $50,000 before the tax credit and gets a 300-mile range for that price.
How about this attention-grabbing headline: "Tesla Model S: $50,000 EV sedan seats seven, 300-mile range, 0-60 in 5.5s". Look where it's from: http://www.autoblog.com/2009/03/26/tesla-model-s-50-000-ev-sedan-seats-seven-300-mile-range-0-6/
Too bad it's $50,000 AFTER the tax credit, and the basic 160-mile battery pack which will leave you stranded if you drive too spiritedly or run the air conditioner or heater too long.
Snowdog 6:15AM (4/29/2009)
Battery economics isn't expensive on the charging side(yet). It is cheaper than gas, but when you factor in the huge expense of the battery and it's consumable nature, then the expense kicks in in a large way.
Say the GM volt battery costs $10000 dollars. Lasts 2500 cycles. Costs $1.00 to charge and gives you 40 miles
So 40 miles costs you $1 for electricity
+ 10000/2500 = $4 for battery life cycle consumption.
So 40 miles cost you $5, not just the $1 electricity charge.
The battery is a massive consumable costs that proponents fail to take into account.
John Opager 7:15AM (4/29/2009)
@Snowdog:
Say the GM ICE engine/transmission costs $10000 dollars. Lasts 2500 fill up cycles. Costs about $3.50 to give you 40 miles.
So 40 miles costs you $3.50 for gas
+ 10000/2500 = $4 for ICE life cycle consumption
So 40 miles cost you $7.50, not just the $3.50 gas charge.
The engine and transmission are massive consumable(don't forget preventative maintenance) costs that ICE proponents fail to take into account.
U C wut I did thar?
Aron Trimble 12:18PM (4/29/2009)
Of interesting note is the fact that electricity is actually selling for around $.03 right now. It's also worth considering that electricity is cheap because oil is cheap... Where do you think power plants get the power to run their generators? Most run off of either heating oil or natural gas.
Cars are only a tiny part of our nation's dependence on oil. Policy-makers need to focus on the big picture rather than stuffing the autos with the bill and then giving them money to keep them afloat when their policies put the big 3 on death watch.
We really need some fresh thinkers in Congress (on both sides of the aisle).
andrew 7:26PM (4/29/2009)
hahahahah... you're joking right? who do you work for... Exxon?
Lettuce69 1:33PM (5/02/2009)
Watch, 'Who Killed the Electric Car' from your local Library, YouTube, eBay, Amazon, etc...
You will see that the Electic Vehicle 'Fad' has passed...
(according to Gas and Oil Companies, many of which are starting to invest in energy alternatives as a potential future 'Hedge' or worthy income stream...)
and yet SOME of the general public is starting to understand and appreciate that EVs will not ever be a 'Fad', and Hybrids are helping us to 'bridge the gap', so to speak...
Good Hybrids and Better EVs will be a strong force in the future of many viable and successful companies and customers...
Electric Vehicles are much more viable than Hydrogen Fuel Cells will be (in our life time).
I believe HFC Vehicles are about as close to (everyday consumer) market as aircraft turbine cars and yet-to-be-developed vehicles powered via plutonium, uranium, or your cranium...
ArchAngel 8:10PM (4/28/2009)
I really wonder what the real world mileage of the car will be when purely on extended range mode.
Reply