GM partners with utilities to advance plug-in hybrids

SAN JOSE, Calif.--General Motors is teaming up with 30 utilities in 37 states and with the Electric Power Research Institute to develop a charging infrastructure for electric cars.

They aim to fine-tune the technology, safety, and customer experience for car-charging stations by 2010, when the Chevy Volt is due to be produced.

The challenges include providing an affordable, reliable electricity source that's weather-proof and child-proof at locations such as public garages, curbside meters, and workplace parking lots.

Another aim is to prevent utilities from being overwhelmed during peak hours when the grid is already challenged. Electric cars can be charged at night when electrical rates and demand are low, but that's not feasible for drivers either traveling away from a home outlet or living where a personal plug-in isn't available.

A national car-charging infrastructure will be far from being established by the time consumers can take the Volt for a 40-mile spin on a full charge of its lithium-ion battery.

However, Jonathan Lauckner, GM's vice president of global program management, said that involvement by big automakers will accelerate the spread of greener transportation, leading to a meaningful reduction of carbon emissions and dependence on foreign oil.

"Thousands of cars is a fail," he said at a dinner before the Plug-In 2008 conference, which is taking place here Tuesday through Thursday. "We need tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands over a number of years."

Lauckner said he hopes another 50 to 70 of the approximately 3,000 U.S. utilities will join the partnership by year's end.

"What's happening is the convergence of the energy and transportation industries," said Sherry Boschert, former president of the San Francisco Electric Vehicle Association and author of a 2006 book about plug-in hybrids.

Many electric car advocates have accused Detroit, at best, of lagging and, at worst, of killing progress to protect profits while lauding innovations in green transportation by Silicon Valley start-ups such as Tesla.

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, meanwhile, hopes for his city to become a hub for electric cars. He has discussed partnering with Project Better Place, which is working toward electric-car infrastructure in Israel, Denmark, and Portugal.

Newsom's office on Monday invited companies to submit ideas by September 19 for charging infrastructure for plug-in hybrids and full-battery vehicles. The city next will seek requests for proposals.

"We will be the first bidder," said Richard Lowenthal, CEO of Coulomb Technologies, which is designing charging stations for cars. The company launched a two-year demonstration contract on Monday with the city of San Jose.

[dascha1]

Global warming has been in cars since they invented roll-up windows. Despite fatality after fatality, negligent drivers/caregivers still forget about that child, pet or elderly passenger. Keep on reporting it, but the fact that despite attempts for designed technology to solve the problem over the last several years, at a very low cost, global warming outside of the car seems to be the point of this story.

[theBike45]

Mayor Newsome has foollishly (for strictly political reasons) invited Project Better Place to
come to town, mostly to rape his city's consumers, if one examines the infrastructure and monopolistic nature of the project. Newsome is compeltely ignorant of electrical propulsion technology : Project Better Place makes little sense in Israel, which, like every other place, only needs plug-in hybrids to meet all its oil avoidance goals. In the US it doesn't even make a little bit of sense - once any of the Project's enslaved customers want to travel outside the city limits of San Fran, too bad. So exaclty what does Newsome think he's gaining from this multibillion dollar extravaganza? A plug-in with a 40 miles range can eliminate over 95% of gasoline usage by private transportation - there is NO need whatsoever for these costly heroics, designed mostly, it seems, to advance his political career. The citizens of San Fran have been strangely silent in their lack of skepticism of a system that transparently makes no sense. So what else is new?

[Dragon_Myr]

Shifting fuel demand onto the electrical grid is a bad idea. Everyone uses electricity. Not everyone drives. Prices will skyrocket for everyone. Unless there are serious investments in nuclear power, this shift can only get us into worse trouble especially with an electrical grid that our own government says is like a third-world nation. GM really should partner with oil companies and help drill for more oil since the US sits atop of enough to dwarf what the middle east has -- that is assuming that all lands and coastlines were opened to drilling. Most people forget that there's a reason why we've been using oil to power our vehicles instead of steam, solar, or batteries. We wouldn't have gotten hooked on oil if it wasn't better than the alternatives. Let's also not forget the dramatic reductions in pollution in the US over the past 50 years despite more people and more vehicles than ever before. The Volt and other plug-in hybrids, which is a novel concept, have failed in the past and will fail again for the same technical reasons.

[pwlcapricorn1]

GM has no credibility when it comes to electric anything. What they don't tell you is how GM has no interest in selling us electric cars or the network of charging stations. What they'll do is build the network and charge $100.00 a charge per station, then say the public has no interest in this type of system, then stop production of it's electric car just like they did with the EV-1. GM will be closing their doors soon anyways, so why give them this project? Let the local utilities provide a system teaming up with Toyota. GM killed the electric car and killed my interest in ever buying a car from them.

[iPhoneUser]

This is the solution to our oil crisis? Shift our dependancy from oil to electricity, another resource that is severely lacking in relation to our population size? It's no wonder to me why GM will be closing their doors in a few short years. With all the intelligent minds in the US, I have to believe we could come up with something better than a purely electric car with a 40mi range. I'm sure glad GM spent valuable engineering resources to develop the Camaro (due out in 2010). Nothing screams 'green' like a V8 muscle car that gets '20mpg' (I challenge anyone to get a number even close to that in real-world driving). This is just a very sad and pathetic attempt to produce a car that isn't dependant on oil. Do they really expect us to have to pull over ever 30 miles and wait an hour while the stupid thing recharges? What happens when the power grid shuts down from bad weather or increased use?

[agraham313]

I am part of a campaign aimed at General Motors to become Green Motors and become a hybrid/electric car manufacturer. Check it out here: http://www.thepoint.com/campaigns/save-general-motors-and-the-planet-at-the-same-time

General Motors is falling apart, losing billions, and in jeopardy of going out of business. If we can convince them that there is a viable market for them taking drastic action to convert their cars and trucks to being the most environmentally efficient in the world, they have nothing to lose by unconditionally embracing the green movement.

[dascha1]

If they can adopt very low cost technology to save lives from internal Global Warming then they will save their own credibility as I surely hope they don't have indifference for this sort of headline news yesterday, today and tomorrow:

Santa Clarita boy, 2, dies after being left in minivan for hours
L.A. County sheriff's investigators could not confirm if the death was heat-related. They say the child's mother forgot he was in the vehicle. The incident is being investigated as a homicide.
By Molly Hennessy-Fiske, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
8:31 AM PDT, July 22, 2008

[PriusOwner]

I don´t trust GM, this is why I just bought a Toyota Prius.

[bsarte]

Wow, it is amazing to me how little most of you know about the Volt and related technologies. THe Volt does not run for 40 miles then need a recharge... it HAS a gasoline engine in it, it does not elimate your dependence on oil... and the point is that we either need to start drilling here or oil will disappear eventually. That being said, are you aware WHY we like oil from the Middle East? Because it is a lighter grade of crude, thus easier to refine. North American oil would cost almost 1/3 more to refine than Middle Eastern crude and the current oil refineries wouldn't be able to do it. It's not as simple as "let's drill in Alaska". That being said, I am all for it. I am 100% for reducing our dependency on foreign oil until it is 100% gone. I am also for limiting our dependency on oil as much as possible. This is an attainable goal and cars like the Prius and other gas-electric hybrids are paving the way. Cars like the electric-gas hybrid Volt are the next generation. And if there is any hope of the electric-gas hybrid to work, then the electric infrastructure MUST be changed.

And is GM supposed ot ignore the sports car segment? The Mustang still sells quite well, so why not a Camaro that is far more fuel efficient then the previous Camaro? And while the sales of trucks adn SUVs has slumped recently, people are still buying them so the reality is that gas prices will increase to the point at which people will NO LONGER pay them... and we apparently aren't at that point yet.

Educate yourselves, PLEASE!

[VSSMGuy]

It is quite appearant from some of the comments posted, that there are a lot of people that just plain hate GM. I bet they don't even know why. The EV1 electric vehicle was designed to comply with a law that California's air resource board passed requiring ZERO emmision vehicles. The law was subsequently repealed when it became clear that the enviro wackos in California can't pass laws that override physics.
The Volt is a vehicle that will allow the typical commuter the possibility to travel UP TO 40 miles on electric. If the drive is longer then the vehicles small engine will start allowing the owner to travel much greater distances. Most people's commute would be less than 40 miles/day so they would only burn gas if exceeding that distance.
Future versions of the vehicle could have hydrogen fuel cells that would start after the initial 40 miles on electric.
Iphoneuser, I don't know what you issue is with GM, but I bet you were taught it and don't even know why!

[AnamorphicDane]

Obviously this is a complex issue from building additional renewable sources like Wind,Solar, and Tidal to offseting the Grid for our ravenous American consumption. You can't outsource electric energy infrastructure which will translate into Jobs. Project Better Place would be smart to push for a electrical standard so that all world automakers could use there system. No ones even mentioned EV motorcycle production a perfect commuter vehicle.

Now if the Bureau of Land Management would sell the countless millions of desert acreage to Solar Utilities our Electric production would jump by 45% making way for more EV vehicles.




For all I care GM could layoff all of its 50,000+ employee's. That would allow for a large skilled workforce for EV auto production. Knowing GM's connections in the US Gov't they'll get bailed out just like the financial institutions.

[Aspire2Renew]

Thank you Bsarte for your comment on Middle Eastern oil. The same issue regarding processing issues arises in Albertan tar sands and other similar sites. "Sweet crude" is the most appealing to manufacturers because of an overall better for product for lower cost. Also, sulphur content is an issue as well. It causes catalyst poisoning; not good for those expensive platinum based catalysts!

In regards to energy shift, the main trends we need to pay attention to are...

1. Oil (production and combustion) is non- renewable, polluting, and becoming increasingly scarce. That being said, there's little sweet crude that does not require a relatively large investment to obtain.

2. Electricity can be created from multiple renewable resources to feed the grid. Solar, wind, geothermal, hydro electric and even biofuels are experiencing "growing pains", but have potential.
Oil does not, its a global commodity in decline.

The optimists for renewable resources aspire change and innovation. As an aspiring engineer, I like to believe that there is a solution in the path I have chosen. The existing system cannot last forever, therefore I inquire to the skeptics, when will the change occur? Please show deeper thought and exercise foresight for the much larger problems future generations will face.

[lcalarea47]

hi i also have mixed views on GM , like who killed electric vehicle film etc . like big oil companys buying patents for new batteries etc . gm ford etc are all hurting now ,cause they kept building big suv-es etc .im sure there scrambling to find way to make a buck ,,, there volt is good no matter what though .anything that can help our reliance from fat oil companys and help our air quality , etc .. wander what the ,,,fee,,, will be for recharge ??? im currently building a electric ev conversion and theres quite few others out there doing the same . can be seen at evalbum.com . i would welcome more charging stations for my ev ,, there are alot of free places allready in place . ac dc ev

[lcalarea47]

hi i also have mixed views on GM , like who killed electric vehicle film etc . like big oil companys buying patents for new batteries etc . gm ford etc are all hurting now ,cause they kept building big suv-es etc .im sure there scrambling to find way to make a buck ,,, there volt is good no matter what though .anything that can help our reliance from fat oil companys and help our air quality , etc .. wander what the ,,,fee,,, will be for recharge ??? im currently building a electric ev conversion and theres quite few others out there doing the same . can be seen at evalbum.com . i would welcome more charging stations for my ev ,, there are alot of free places allready in place . ac dc ev

[gemsFamily]

We have a serious problem with GM's product plans.....

We currently have a leased 2005 Saturn Vue that needs to be replaced in 2010. The problem is that the drive system we want in a replacement is going into the Chevy VOLT, not a larger vehcle that will meet our needs!

We also have a 2002 Saturn SC2 that we'd like to replace in 2014 with something that has the Chevy Volt's drive system.

We will refuse to purchase/lease anything that uses a fuel based engine to drive the wheels. That includes the current products from Toyota since they are electric assist systems, not electrict drive systems.

Genieve, Eric, Mariebeth & Stephanie (gemsFamily)

[vistaakah]

All the talk of hybrids and plug in electric cars. ooooooh plug in cars. Why not make an all electric car that can produce enough charging voltage while in operation so that it never needs to be plugged in with the exception of its initial first charge of the vehicle battery. These rocket scientists amaze me some times. I don't see why this wouldn't be possible at all but in the end its all a money game for the car builders and fuel suppliers.