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GM: Volt performance will not suffer once battery is depleted

The driver of a UPS truck flashes a "Hey Good Looking" sign at the pre-production Chevrolet Volt during an engineering test drive along I-80 near Toledo, Ohio, Oc 13. (Photo by Jeffrey Sauger for General Motors)

DETROIT — General Motors wants everyone to know the Chevy Volt won’t suffer any loss of performance when it switches from battery power to its gasoline engine.

GM expects the Volt to accelerate from 0-60 mph in 8.5 seconds. But Car and Driver magazine’s Tony Quiroga wrote in April that the Volt would not be as quick after its battey was depleted.

What isn’t yet clear is how the Volt will behave when the battery is depleted and the gasoline engine kicks in to provide more juice. In this so-called range-extending mode, the electric motor will be limited to the power provided by the 1.4-liter four-cylinder engine under the hood. The gas engine is never used to charge the battery; the engine turns a generator that directly feeds power to the electric motor. If the engine is revving at 2000 rpm and making 25 hp, the electric motor will be able to make only 25 hp. If more power is needed, the gasoline engine could conceivably run at its power peak at a very high rpm. Taking the point further, if the gas engine is rated for only 100 hp (our estimate of its power output), the 149-hp electric motor will be able to make only 100 hp. The upshot: The Volt will be quicker running on battery power than it will be when the gas engine is providing the electricity.What isn’t yet clear is how the Volt will behave when the battery is depleted and the gasoline engine kicks in to provide more juice. In this so-called range-extending mode, the electric motor will be limited to the power provided by the 1.4-liter four-cylinder engine under the hood. The gas engine is never used to charge the battery; the engine turns a generator that directly feeds power to the electric motor. If the engine is revving at 2000 rpm and making 25 hp, the electric motor will be able to make only 25 hp. If more power is needed, the gasoline engine could conceivably run at its power peak at a very high rpm. Taking the point further, if the gas engine is rated for only 100 hp (our estimate of its power output), the 149-hp electric motor will be able to make only 100 hp. The upshot: The Volt will be quicker running on battery power than it will be when the gas engine is providing the electricity.

“There’s no degradation in performace,” said Rob Peterson, communications manager for the Volt, while showing car at The Business of Plugging In electric vehilce conference last week.”That would be death to electric vehicles and death to the Volt.”

Peterson said that while C/D’s calculations about the relationship between the electric motor and the gas engine are correct, the magazine didn’t account for additional power from the battery once the car has switched to its gasoline engine. Peterson said the battery will get some energy from the gas engine and regenerative braking, but it will not get enough power to revert to using battery power alone.

“We want the driver of the vehicle to arrive home with an empty battery as often as possible.

Peterson and other executives at the conference excitedly described a recent 1,200-mile, multi-state drive of eight Volt development mules.

GM plans to begin production of the Volt in late 2010 as a 2011 model. The company has promised that the Volt will travel up to 40 miles on battery power after a full charge. After exhausting the battery, the gasoline engine generator will power the car, giving it a range of 300 miles.

While GM has not finalized prices, it expects it to cost about $40,000. A $7,500 tax credit will soften that price.

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Date: October 26, 2009

Author: Bryan Laviolette

Categories: Electric vehicles, General Motors, Technology, Volt

Tags: Bryan Laviolette, Car and Driver C/D, Chevrolet Volt, Chevy Volt, General Motors, GM, Michigan wllz, Tony Quiroga, Voltec

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Comments RSS TrackBack 12 comments

• 

  Steve Morton

  in November 6th, 2009 @ 15:38

  Once we’re free of mid East oil, the standard could be dropped outright. It probably wouldn’t matter then. Companies would just make electric vehicles to the old standard because all of the “gas” stations would be using it. And hydrogen might be the preferred fuel by then. If a battery change standard helped change the fossil fuel infrastructure over to electric, it would probably do more good than airbags and emissions standards put together.

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• 

  Bryan Laviolette

  in November 5th, 2009 @ 07:44

  I love this gig!
  Sure Betamax was better, but the inferior format won out.
  But how do you ease the standards? We’re not talking about a standard to promote safety or emissions. This is a standard to promote quick and easy changeability. Maybe performance cars won’t be part of the battery change program.

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• 

  Steve Morton

  in November 5th, 2009 @ 04:57

  I think you just like to brag that you’re driving a candy apple red Mustang GT! Would have to be a gov sponsored contest. I look at it more like other standards on cars like airbags, emission controls, etc.. You can still have wild variety, including gas cars. I still have a hard time imagining no gas hot rods, but I’m trying. I think Betamax was superior, but you’re right, you risk getting stuck with second best or worse. How about ease up on the standard once we’ve flipped off OPEC for good?

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• 

  Bryan Laviolette

  in November 4th, 2009 @ 08:51

  LOL flying Miatas! It’s nice to dream. I’ve asked my friends at Gibbs Technologies when they are going to work on a flying car since they are already working on the floating car. No word on that one.
  The problem with a contest is this is a free country. Who’s to say that GM (or any other automaker) won’t go all Betamax on the rest of the world and forge a path that they think is better.
  Of course, we want to tell the Middle East to keep their oil. But the people in this country love their fast machines, their wildly different concepts of what constitutes a car. Case in point: I just drove a Ford Fusion Hybrid for a week and was happy to squeeze extra mileage out of the car. Now I’m driving a Ford Mustang GT. My only thought about gas mileage is why I’ve already used half a tank. These are cars from the same automaker but that have far different missions (even though their sticker prices are actually just a few hundred dollars apart).

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• 

  Steve Morton

  in November 4th, 2009 @ 03:56

  You probably have a contest for the best system. Multiple packs for bigger vehicles sounds right. It limits creativity like all standardizations, but it would be worth it do tell the Arabs to keep their oil. I was just thinking the other day that you could use maybe the bottom half of a pickup bed for batteries, and maybe have the walls able to move up for more cargo. Use half of a semi trucks trailer for batteries. Double the cost of shipping but double the number of truck drivers and semi sales. As for the 2025 Miata, I have no idea since I don’t know how it will apply to cars that can fly.

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• 

  Bryan Laviolette

  in November 3rd, 2009 @ 22:07

  OK, here’s one issue with interchangeable batteries. How do you accommodate different types of vehicles? A car the size of a Ford Focus won’t take the same battery as a full-size F-150.
  There’s also the issue of who’s standard you use. Whose idea for the connector becomes the standard? Is the answer modules where you use one for a small car, two for a mid-size, maybe four for a full-size crossover?
  The bottom line for standardization is limiting creativity. What would a 2025 incarnation of a Mazda Miata look like? Can I move the battery to a different location in the car?
  One of my issues with all of the electrification talk is that the focus is on small cars. How about a hybrid minivan? What about a Voltec system in a full-size crossover? There’s always going to be a need for full-size pickup trucks. How are you going to electrify those?

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  Steve Morton

  in November 3rd, 2009 @ 02:45

  Why don’t they think interchangeable batteries won’t work. Seems like standardizing all of that stuff would not hurt overall innovation very much. They need to do it now if they want to do it. The sooner the better.

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  Bryan Laviolette

  in November 1st, 2009 @ 22:34

  Those interchangeable batteries were a controversial topic at the electric vehicle conference. A lot of people think they won’t work. If they are going to work, standardization will have to be the key. But it won’t just be standardization of the battery. There will have to be standards for how and where they are mounted in the vehicle, how they are mounted, not to mention elements such as connections and how the battery will be used and managed.

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• 

  Steve Morton

  in November 1st, 2009 @ 07:42

  A Better Place was the company working in Denmark. Easy battery swaps sounds like a great idea. Having maybe the oil companies own them could be another way those companies convert to greener energy. The government should try to get these batteries standardized to a size that could easily be swapped at one station for all electric car models. In Denmark most people use trains to travel long distances. Could work here too. Then rent an electric at your destination. Another good idea from there was 6 inch wide ramps on the sides of public stairways to make it easy to walk your bike up the stairs.

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• 

  Bryan Laviolette

  in October 31st, 2009 @ 09:13

  Denmark is one of the leaders in electric vehicles. There is a company called A Better Place that wants to make this battery swap something that we do to solve the range anxiety issues. Still think they are going to have to develop more range to make it worthwhile. The Nissan Leaf is projected to have a 100-mile range. If I’m driving up north, I don’t want to have to stop every 100 miles. Makes me think that, at this time, the technology in the Chevy Volt is the best solution

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  Steve Morton

  in October 31st, 2009 @ 05:47

  Saw a cool story on PBS Now show on Denmark going to mostly electric cars. For long trips, you enter your destination in the cars nav system and it directs you to a battery station before your battery goes dead. You pull up on a ramp and a robot from underneath changes the huge battery in 40 seconds. You only own the car, not the battery. On the downside, they have a 180% tax on gasoline cars in addition to the 25% sales tax. And the whole windmill to charging and battery station infrastructure is extremely expensive. They could do more good for the environment currently to use the money to maintain and add forest in Brazil with carbon credits.

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• Quick scan of the net – gm chevy « laurenhiggins

  in October 26th, 2009 @ 15:05

  [...] http://michiganwllz.com/2009/10/gm-volt-performance-will-not-suffer-once-battery-is-depleted/DETROIT — General Motors wants everyone to know the Chevy Volt won’t suffer any loss of performance when it switches from battery power to its gasoline engine. GM expects the Volt to accelerate from 0-60 mph in 8.5 seconds. … [...]

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