Green Tech

One year before starting production of the Chevy Volt, General Motors engineers say they are confident in the performance and safety of the electric car's batteries.

GM executives gave an update on the car's plans on Tuesday, saying engineers are making some tweaks to the design but that they are on schedule.

The Volt's chief engineer, Andrew Farah, also implied that GM is close to moving ahead with a project to make a Cadillac that uses the same gas-electric power train that the Volt uses. Last week, there were reports that the Converj concept had been given the green light internally, with expected car delivery in 2013.

For the Volt, GM is preparing the battery and auto manufacturing, which will happen in its home state of Michigan, with the process and product validation scheduled to begin early next year, executives said.

In the meantime, GM engineers are testing the Volt's battery pack, called the Voltec, and putting 80 prototype vehicles through the paces. In addition to crash tests for safety, they are testing the car's performance on a range of conditions, including very hot and cold temperatures, and steep hills.

This crash test shows that the orange T-shape battery pack of the Volt is not impacted during frontal collision, says GM.

(Credit: General Motors)

The Volt is a gas-electric hybrid, but unlike the Toyota Prius and other hybrids on the road now, the Volt moves only from electric motors. The gasoline engine is used to supply energy to the batteries through a generator.

Because it's a new car, GM still is trying to project what sort of performance to expect. Overall, engineers are happy, but they also know that climate conditions and driving style will affect the battery's performance, they said.

"Ten years is the target life (for the battery). Depending on how you use it and where you live, you could see significantly longer time," said David Wallace, engineering group manager for Voltec Battery Systems.

The biggest challenge is battery durability in very hot weather, he said. People who live in more temperate areas and do a lot of city driving will have more forgiving conditions, Wallace added.

"But even if you live in Phoenix, as long as you charge at night, and you run during the day, your battery will remain happy," he said.

During its testing, GM has to tune the chemistry of individual batteries, which will be supplied by LG Chem. Various tests, including crash tests, have indicated that battery safety is good, executives said.

For the car itself, auto engineers are now making adjustments to reduce the overall noise during times when the gas engine kicks on for longer rides.

Farah declined to say how big the gas tank will be, which will indicate what the overall driving range is, saying that decision will be made as late as possible.

Separately, Farah said GM's plan to produce an Opel in Europe that uses the Voltec powertrain is still on target, with a schedule roughly one year behind the Volt.

Photos: OnStar EV Lab connects to Chevy Volt

Start-up ReVolt Technology is developing rechargeable zinc air batteries, a technology it says promises longer runtime for consumer electronics and plug-in vehicles.

The Switzerland-based company, which was spun out of a Norwegian research institute five years ago, anticipates commercializing a rechargeable coin-size batteries next year. But the technology has the potential to be a cheaper and more energy-dense alternative to lithium ion batteries in consumer electronics, grid storage, and transportation, according to CEO James McDougall.

The components of ReVolt's current rechargeable battery technology include an air electrode, an interface below it in blue, and a zinc electrode.

(Credit: ReVolt Technologies)

Zinc air batteries, which are already used in hearing aids, create an electrical current through a chemical reaction between zinc and the oxygen in air. Researchers have pursued rechargeable zinc air batteries for many years because zinc is relatively abundant and the internal chemistry, safe.

But there remain some technical challenges. After multiple charge-discharge cycle, the anode in zinc air batteries can become damaged and stop working. McDougall said ReVolt is trying to reach between 500 and 2,000 charge cycles, depending on whether the battery is used for consumer electronics or large-scale storage.

ReVolt engineers are working on a new design in which a zinc slurry is pumped through tubes that act as an air electrode, causing the chemical reaction that produces a current, McDougall explained. He expects it will take four or five years to commercialize the technology for large-scale applications, such as grid storage.

The company has raised 24 million Euros in funding, including an investment from power generator RWE of Germany, which is looking at the zinc air for storage on the electricity grid. ReVolt has applied for an ARPA-E grant aimed at breakthrough energy technologies but was not chosen in the first round of awards.

For vehicles, it makes sense to combine the relatively large energy storage of zinc air batteries with other storage technologies, McDougall said. Power-dense lithium ion batteries could be used for boosts of acceleration and ultracapacitors could capture energy from regenerative braking.

"You could increase the range of next-generation of electric vehicles with hybrid storage... You could get three times the range, eliminate the safety concerns, and cut the cost of the system," he said.

Updated at 10:55 AM pt with corrected timing for coin-size battery release.

For a car that won't be available for more than a year, the Chevy Volt has got a huge following. Over 50,000 people have signed up for a waiting list run by a non-GM Web site. It's a compelling design idea: a car that moves from a peppy electric motor but has a gas tank to run a generator for longer trips.

But scratch the surface a bit and you'll find doubters. As competitor Toyota moves into plug-ins, it advocates sticking with the blended mode of today's hybrids, where the gas engine and battery move the car, because it believes that technology is more affordable.

Tony Posawatz, vehicle line director for the Chevy Volt, at GM's OnStar EV Lab last Monday.

(Credit: General Motors)

A Carnegie Mellon study last year (click for PDF) concluded that hybrids with large batteries, such as the Volt, are not the most cost-effective choice among plug-in options. That's a view shared by the federal government's auto industry task force, which last year said that big reductions in battery costs would be required to make the Volt cost-competitive. (Click for PDF.)

GM executives have said all along that the Volt will be expensive because it's the first generation of the technology and there isn't yet a high-volume supply chain to keep costs down. In an interview earlier this week, General Motors CEO Fritz Henderson said the price of the Volt will be about $40,000.

To get an idea of what GM's expectations were for the financial impact from the Volt, I spoke with Tony Posawatz, the vehicle line director for the Chevy Volt, during the Business of Plugging In conference in Detroit last week.

In terms of volume, GM expects to sell thousands of Chevy Volts in the first year, he said, which means the company's fortunes in the near future hinge on other models.

Down the road, the question is whether GM can ramp up sales by lowering costs and by adapting the powertrain technology to other vehicles.

Q: I've been writing about the Volt for a couple of years now. It's cool technology but do you think it will be a commercial success?
Posawatz: All bets are off if gas prices are under two bucks a gallon. This could be a challenging environment, no question about it. Now we don't anticipate that in the long term. And because the launch volume in the first few months is relatively modest, I think we can do OK. I think the real question will be in the 2012 time frame. Where will the economy be then and can we reach beyond the early adopters?

Well, do you think you can reach a broader audience?
Posawatz: We think we can. The intent is that in year two we will be making tens of thousands of vehicles. The exact number will depend on the economic climate, the demand from new customers, etc. We have a pretty good feeling given the uniqueness of this product. I just finished up a pretty lengthy drive and we had (tested) some competitive vehicles which shall remain nameless, and there was a significant difference in the driving experience of this car. That's the hidden pleasure that people can't see and feel until they drive the car.

You have a low center of gravity and you have instantaneous torque--you can burn rubber on the car--and no transmission shifts... It will have a high "fun to drive" quotient.

So is this going to be a high-end car aimed at affluent customers?
Posawatz: A lot of the first folks will be the early adopters. To a certain degree, we'll seek them out because those are the guys that will effectively help tell the story. You know, the person who is always the first to use technology and he tells you it's OK, he's proved it out. We're going to look for those guys.

I think you hit on the key question: what happens after that? We're hoping that the aficionados, the folks who really understand technology, they say, "Wow, this is the car." I think it will always be more (expensive) than a conventional car because of the nature of the battery, the nature of the high technology. And there will be some very cool features in there. Very akin to consumer electronics. You'll see less hardware updates and more software updates and maybe even apps that come along with the car (through OnStar).

The 2011 Chevy Volt.

(Credit: General Motors)

How can you bring down the cost?
Posawatz: The other interesting piece of the puzzle is the benefits that people will get which will soften the blow of the price tag on the car. There's a $7,500 tax credit that will be available for a long time so take that off the price. There's a charging fueling rebate (for fueling with electricity)--up to $1,000.

We anticipate that some localities (could) give you preferred parking, HOV access, free electricity at place of work--all which will end up being positive. So there will be a different kind of calculation for customers. And there are some interesting business models as it relates to spreading the cost of the battery over time (such as leasing). We're investigating a lot of this stuff.

The projections for all-electric vehicles (also called battery-electrics) and extended-ranged electric vehicles (like the Volt) are that they will only be about 1 percent of sales in five years. Given the investment and attention you're getting for the Volt, is that OK?
Posawatz: Like a lot of stuff, the gen one version is probably not the most important play. It's ultimately what we do after that. By building it on an existing platform, different body styles can go on it. We have a pretty good understanding on how we can reduce the cost in the next generation of technology, with a little bit more competition in the supply base, etc. So this is a much more of a longer-term game (with an eye toward markets outside the U.S. as well)...We'll see. The good place to be is on the first mover side. The first movers also learn the fast.

I'm bullish on battery electrics, the question is when. Because the Volt is an electrically driven vehicle, we have the different components set up for that. Ultimately, at some point somebody will say they've come up with a battery with twice the energy and power density and half the cost.

So you think that Toyota's more conservative approach is not the way to go?
Posawatz: Every company has to find what they think is their formula for winning. And we think the regular hybrid architecture is still an internal combustion engine. We now have the possibility of different variants for engine generators. It could be a whole different gas tank size and fuels. The Volt will come with a gas version and an E85 (ethanol) version. Oh, and you can take the engine generator set out and it could be a battery-only vehicle. You could use fuel cell stack. You can't do that with a conventional hybrid.... (though) we have hybrids, too.

Automakers are expected to agree this week to use the SAE J1772 five-pin charging system and coupler as the standard connection for plug-in vehicles.

(Credit: SAE International)

The Society of Automotive Engineers International, the organization that sets the standard for aerospace and automotive industry technology, will vote this week to make the SAE J1772 charging system and coupler the standard connection for plug-in vehicles, according to a General Motors executive.

Britta Gross, director of GM's Global Energy Systems, shared the news during a live Web chat at GM's Fastlane blog on Tuesday evening.

"As Jon Lauckner said this morning, the Volt comes with a 120-V charger and if you can find a normal outlet, you can charge the Volt," Gross said.

She went on to add that all major automakers will eventually equip cars with the same charging coupler when their respective plug-in cars in the pipeline reach the consumer market because a standard agreement was being reached.

"Yes, GM's Gery Kissel is chair of the SAE J1772 standards committee. The standard is going to a vote this week after two and a half years of work. All major automakers are expected to agree to adhere to these charging standards. All infrastructure that goes in from now on should be J1772 compliant so all plug-in vehicles can use it," Gross said.

Gross is referring to the SAE J1772 or SAE electric vehicle conductive charging cable and coupler which has five pins and can be used with 120V or 240 V single phase electrical systems.

The agreement would allow charging stations throughout the world to plug in to any standard plug-in vehicle in the same way nozzles at gas stations are standardized to fit gas- or diesel-powered vehicles, respectively.

DETROIT--General Motors needs to wring thousands of dollars in cost from its high-profile Chevy Volt electric car before it can compete long term on price, a company executive said on Tuesday.

The biggest challenge relating to the cost of electric vehicles and the Volt specifically is the battery and related components, such as the power electronics and the motors. Compared to other plug-ins, the Volt has a very large battery--sized at 16 kilowatt hours--to ensure that drivers can meet most daily driving needs in electric mode.

For the car to get "traction" in the market, the cost of the battery components needs to drop more than $5,000, said Jonathan Lauckner, GM's vice president of global program management at the Business of Plugging In conference here.

"Clearly if we really want to have these vehicles get traction and want to bring the price of vehicles to a level that's competitive with say, a hybrid today, we got to get battery costs way down from where they are today," Lauckner said.

The Chevy Volt technology includes a T-shaped battery pack in the middle of the car and both an internal combustion engine and electric motor in the front.

(Credit: Martin LaMonica/CNET)

GM plans to manufacture the battery pack for the Volt, which is scheduled for release at the end of next year, using cells from a division of LG Chem. Lauckner said that the cost per stored energy for that entire pack is several hundred dollars less than $1,000 per kilowatt-hour, a number that's been projected by people outside GM.

The cost for the battery pack needs to shrink substantially to compete with existing auto technology to the range of $250 per kilowatt-hour, Lauckner said.

GM has not yet priced the Volt, which runs on batteries for 40 miles and uses an internal combustion engine to sustain the battery after that. People outside the company have estimated the cost at about $40,000.

There's a potential additional cost if electric car buyers choose to install a 220-volt charger at home, which will essentially cut charge time in half compared to charging from a regular 110-volt outlet. Having a 220-volt charger installed can cost between $300 and $3,000 depending on the complexity of the job, say industry executives.

To offset that upfront cost, Volt buyers qualify for the maximum $7,500 federal tax credit. The tax credit is one way that the federal government has sought to revitalize the U.S. auto industry around electric vehicle technologies. But Lauckner said that long term Volt costs have to go down further because government incentives will go away at some point.

The ongoing operating costs of owning a Volt will be about one-sixth of that of compact sedan, Lauckner said, adding that the savings go higher as the price of gasoline goes up. GM expects that most Volt drivers will be able to do almost all their driving in electric mode.

DETROIT--General Motors on Monday opened the doors to the OnStar EV Lab here, a testing center for in-car communications the company hopes will give its electric Chevy Volt more high-tech appeal.

The OnStar EV Lab, housed in GM's downtown Detroit corporate headquarters, is now using the OnStar communications system to gather data on 19 Chevy Volt vehicles for engineering purposes. The same technology will give consumers the ability to tap online services and perform tasks specific to a plug-in electric vehicle, company executives said.

Photos: OnStar EV Lab connects to Chevy Volt

When GM releases the Volt at the end of next year, consumers will be able to program when to charge the vehicle much like they operate home heating and cooling system, said Tony Posawatz, the vehicle line director for the Chevy Volt. GM is considering more advanced features as well, such as demand response where car charging slows down during peak times in exchange for lower rates from the utility.

"The car will have to talk to the grid and be able to pull very sensitive (utility) data," Posawatz said. "Electric vehicle customers want to manage their energy--they're very into data. OnStar is an enabling tool for us."

The OnStar system could broker communications with the utility so that consumers can charge at off-peak times, such as the middle of the night, and potentially take advantage of lower rates. "Smart charging," or charging at off-peak times, is important to manage so that plug-in electric vehicles don't add to peak-time electricity demand. In the near term, utility executives say the biggest concern is that many cars in one local area will tax one particular electricity distribution point.

Because rolling the Volt out will require coordination with utilities, General Motors plans to offer the Volt only in certain regions of the U.S. when the car is first made available. "It certainly won't be a nation-wide roll-out," Posawatz said.

The Chevy Volt at GM's newly opened OnStar EV Lab.

(Credit: Martin LaMonica/CNET)

Having an integrated communications system, which uses the digital cellular network, with OnStar is a boon to Volt engineers because there isn't a lot of available data on battery performance from cars of similar design, company executives said. The Volt is an extended-range electric vehicle that can drive 40 miles on battery charge and then uses an internal combustion engine to sustain the battery charge for longer rides.

There are 20 modules on the Volt that can feed information back to GM engineers at the OnStar EV Lab, allowing them to get performance and diagnostic information on individual cars. The system also allows GM to get data on the battery subsystem, which the company is testing rigorously as it finalizes the car. For example, OnStar can monitor battery charge, temperature, and the performance of the liquid-cooling system.

OnStar, which is a subsidiary of GM, now has 5.6 million subscribers who pay either $199 or $299 per year for services, such as road-side assistance or remote car unlocking, which are handled by people in GM call centers. Although the system was designed to poll performance data on gasoline cars, GM executives said that the technology platform is flexible enough to work with different powertrains.

GM plans to offer the OnStar service in China next year. Also, GM intends to sell the Chevy Volt in China, western Europe, and Canada, executives said.

The Chevy Volt may be the most exciting car coming from General Motors, but costs remain a barrier to wide-scale adoption, according to Bob Lutz, the company's vice chairman and design guru.

During a Web chat last week, Lutz said gasoline prices will need to go significantly higher in the U.S. before the car can become "generalized." His comments were reported on Thursday by GM-Volt.com, a site not affiliated with GM.

"The Volt technology is very exciting, but costs will have to come down before it can become generalized, and U.S. fuel prices will have to rise to world levels, meaning $5 or $6 per gallon," Lutz said. That was in response to a question about GM's plans to use the Volt power train, called Voltec, with other vehicles.

The first edition of the Volt, due late next year, will deliver a jump in fuel economy, offering over 100 miles per gallon. The car runs 40 miles on a large lithium ion battery and then uses a gasoline engine for longer trips.

GM executives have said before that this first-generation technology will be expensive--unconfirmed reports have put the price at about $40,000 before federal tax credits for plug-in electric vehicles.

The company is already working on bringing the costs down--particularly for the battery components--for the follow-on editions, according to the company.

Several automakers are betting on plug-in electric vehicles, which will start to come to market over the next year. This week's Frankfurt Motor Show showcased several electric and gas-electric concept cars.

Studies have shown that electric cars are less polluting than gasoline cars, particularly if vehicles are charged at off-peak times. They also allow more people to "fuel up" with a domestic source of energy.

But the high costs of battery components and range limitations of all-electric cars mean that plug-in electric vehicles will remain a small slice of the overall market, according to experts.

The Boston Consulting Group earlier this year released an analysis that predicted electric vehicles are likely to have 3 percent market share in 2020, compared to a projected 20 percent share for hybrid-electric vehicles.

An executive from Toyota, which has sold more than 2 million hybrid Priuses, said this week that it will take until 2020 before electric vehicles will be suitable for the "mass market."

MILFORD, Mich.--It was brief, but my ride in a Chevy Volt was decidedly fun, even exciting.

On Tuesday, I visited the sprawling Milford Proving Grounds in southeastern Michigan, where General Motors vehicles have been put through the paces since the 1920s.

I was one of the lucky few who got the last ride of the day in a pre-production version of the Volt, which was "almost stolen" from the car's development team by Frank Weber, the global vehicle line executive for the Volt, to give journalists a taste of the upcoming plug-in electric sedan.

In addition to being a key figure in the Volt's development, Weber clearly has got a car engineer's love of driving. His high-speed tour around the track gave me a feel for the "driving experience" GM executives tout with the Volt, which is due late next year.

I was prepared for the zippy acceleration. Models will vary of course, but electric vehicles can boast great acceleration--the Tesla Roadster is faster off the line than many sports cars, for instance--and they deliver their full torque at all speeds.

What surprised me though was the handling. As Weber dipped around the couple turns we took, the car seemed to really stick to the road, and I didn't slide off my seat at all.

It makes sense that it felt like the car "hugged" the road. The large, 400-pound battery pack, which is positioned under the back seats, gives the Volt a low center of gravity, and the car has a good weight distribution, GM executives said.

During the drive, Weber--obviously enamored with its performance--said that you feel much closer to the electric car when you drive because of the responsive acceleration. "It's more like flying than driving a vehicle," he said. And, of course, the ride was very quiet as the car was running on batteries.

I've never taken a Lamborghini or Ferrari around a test track, but I can say the Volt's acceleration and handling are noticeably sportier than sedans like the Prius or the alternative fuel SUVs I also drove at Milford.

Watching the video, you can get a feel for how Weber showed off the Volt's acceleration and, on the last turn, the handling.

Under construction
Earlier in the day, I took a tour of GM's pre-production facility at its Tech Center in Warren, Mich., where I gained a bit more insight into the interplay between the Volt's two power sources--its batteries and the internal combustion engine.

WARREN, Mich.--General Motors' announcement on Tuesday that it expects that the Chevy Volt will get an eye-popping 230 miles per gallon begs an obvious question: how can the mileage of electric vehicles be compared to gasoline cars?

It's a problem that the Environmental Protection Agency is working on with the Department of Energy, the Society of Auto Engineers, and California, an EPA representative said on Wednesday. But that system for testing mileage is still in development and not yet public.

The EPA also put out a statement on Tuesday saying that it has not tested the Volt for mileage yet and "cannot confirm the economy values claimed by GM." GM said that its mileage estimate, including triple digit combined city and highway driving, was based on a draft methodology developed by the EPA.

The lack of verifiable tests, however, hasn't stopped automakers from tantalizing consumers. The all-electric Nissan Leaf, due in late 2010, boasts the equivalent of 367 miles per gallon, and the electric Tesla Roadster claimed over 100 miles per gallon mileage as well.

Pressed on how mileage numbers for the Volt were arrived at, GM executives offered some details, saying that the number will vary depending on how far people drive before they replenish the car's batteries.

"I'm confident that we will be in triple digits" with Chevy Volt mileage, said GM CEO Fritz Henderson at a press conference on Tuesday.

(Credit: Martin LaMonica/CNET)

The draft EPA methodology figures that a plug-in electric vehicle driver will go a certain number of miles on batteries alone and then another portion on the gasoline engine, explained Frank Weber, the global vehicle line executive for the Chevy Volt. To arrive at the mix between battery versus gasoline, the EPA is studying average American driving patterns, executives said.

The EPA is also developing another, less familiar metric for electric vehicles. In the Volt's case, it will take 25 kilowatt-hours to go 100 miles. Weber said the models behind the EPA methodology are "robust," adding that he expects the EPA to disclose more about the tests later this year.

To come up with 230 miles per gallon for city driving, GM assumes that Volt owners charge the car's batteries once a day, which enables them to do the majority of their driving from electricity drawn from the socket. The Volt, due late next year, is designed to run 40 miles on electric charge and then use a gasoline engine to sustain the battery for longer trips.

Misleading?
Triple digit combined fuel efficiency is certainly impressive--the Toyota Prius and Honda Insight hybrids both sport combined mileage of about 50 miles per gallon depending on driving style.

But immediately after GM's announcement, people began complaining that the claim is misleading.

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