Michigan wllz

Cristi Landy, Volt Product Marketing Manager

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Make no mistake, General Motors officials believe the Chevy Volt will change the world when it goes on sale late this year.

“There is a strong desire to go to electrically driven transportation,” said Cristi Landy, GM’s marketing manager for the Volt, speaking to Michigan wllz via Skype from the floor of the Washington Auto Show.
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By BRYAN LAVIOLETTE
Michigan wllz

DETROIT — Maybe last year’s show set this year’s up for a letdown.

At the 2009 show, General Motors went on the offensive with major announcements about its plans for a battery research facility, Chevy Volt production plans, partnership programs with battery manufacturers and a new Cadillac concept using the Volt’s technology.

It was exciting because GM, facing the toughest trials of its existence, went on the offensive and actually wrested the fuel economy lead away from Toyota.

But on Monday, Toyota and Ford went on their own offensives. Jim Lentz, head of Toyota’s U.S. sales arm, said that the company planned to develop a “family” of Prius hybrid vehicles. It also announced that there are eight new hybrid models in the pipeline and that the company plans to increase global hybrid production from 530,000 in 2009 to 1 million within the next couple of years.

Lentz went on to say that the company is approaching what it calls “sustainable mobility” with a four-prong approach that includes the company’s hybrids, plug-in hybrids, fuel cell vehicles and battery electric vehicles.

Toyota has already announced a new plug-in Prius that the company will build in limited numbers later this year. Lentz also said that the company plans to market a fuel cell vehicle by 2015.

So what was on GM’s agenda regarding fuel economy? GM showed production versions of the Chevy Spark and Cruze, vehicles it has shown previously. It also showed a sporty concept of the next generation Chevy Aveo and of course the Volt.

It also showed an urban utility vehicle concept for GMC called the Granite,  a Denali version of the GMC Acadia and a Buick Regal called the GS.

As for big announcements about advanced powertrains, GM officials didn’t offer much. It still has a press conference scheduled for Tuesday to talk about plans for Cadillac, but no major announcements on fuel economy are expected.

At last year’s show, GM showed the Cadillac Converj concept using the Volt’s high-tech powertrain. Some had hoped that GM would announce that the Converj was a go, but right now, all that is expected is for Cadillac to show the CTS-V Coupe.

Ford also stepped up with some major announcements. The Dearborn automaker announced plans to invest $450 million and create 1,000 jobs to build lithium ion batteries for hybrid and plug-in hybrid vehicles.

“This investment underscores how serious we are about delivering a range of electrified vehicles to customers — including hybrids, plug-in hybrids and pure electric vehicles,” Bill Ford Jr., Ford’s executive chairman, said in a statement.

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.

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DETROIT — A continuing topic of conversation at The Business of Plugging In electric vehicle conference has been fuel cost certainty. Without it, automakers who are investing precious resources into new electric vehicles may have a tough time selling them.

Gov. Granholm wants electric vehicle companies to locate in Michigan

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2011 Chevrolet Volt

FLINT — Cynics all over the Web wonder if the Chevy Volt will be able to deliver on the incredible promises General Motors has made about the technology.

But company officials believe they are creating the technology that will power the vehicles of the future.
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Karl Brauer, editor in chief of Edmunds.com raises an interesting point here.

Time for a do-over on how we show energy use in vehicles. MPG was never perfect, but with alternative energy coming it’s officially useless.

The upcoming Chevy Volt will be the first to essentially mock fuel economy standards which have been a staple of new car marketing for decades. GM expects the Volt to carry a fuel mileage sticker of 230 mpg. How is it possible to reconcile that number with other cars, none of which can muster even a quarter of that number? Is it really possible that the Volt is more than four times as efficient as a Toyota Prius?

It will get even harder in the near future. How do you quantify the mileage of a hydrogen-powered car? Pure electric? If ethanol requires more energy to produce than it provides as a fuel, should it be penalized?

So what’s the answer? That’s for people smarter than me to figure out.

If Lotus Cars is known for one thing, it is the company’s family of small yet soul-stirring sports cars. But in fact, parent company Lotus Group also contains an important—and profitable—division called Lotus Engineering that lends the company’s considerable engineering expertise to many of the world’s automakers as they develop powertrain and suspension technology for new models.

While most of Lotus Engineering’s ventures are consummated far away from the public, the group is taking to the Frankfurt Auto Show to woo corporate suitors with an all-new three-cylinder engine designed specifically for use as a dedicated range-extending electricity generator in plug-in hybrids.

In keeping with its “smaller and lighter is better” engineering ethic, the aluminum 1.2-liter SOHC engine integrates the cylinder block, cylinder head, and exhaust manifold in a single casting. As such, the engine is very compact and, at just 150 pounds, it is so low in mass that it won’t really matter where in a given hybrid it is situated. Furthermore, as a purpose-built range extender (versus an adaptation of an existing engine like the 1.4-liter Ecotec used by the upcoming Chevy Volt) the Lotus engine gets by without fancy direct injection, turbochargers, and such. Redline is kept to just 3500—hard to believe from a company whose other products rev to 9000 rpm—at which point the engine is churning out its 47-hp max; peak torque of 79 lb-ft arrives at 2500 rpm.

While Lotus’s new engine is not likely to turn plug-ins into Evo-eaters, Lotus claims that its diminutive weight will allow plug-ins to run with fewer batteries, further reducing cost and weight. The motor’s real-world fuel consumption and emissions will depend, of course, on the vehicle in which it is installed, among many other factors. But suffice to say that it will be a sipper. No word on potential takers for the engine, though Lotus says Jaguar was involved with the project as part of a collaboration sponsored by the UK’s Technology Strategy Board.

Source: Car and Driver

Sastry

TRAVERSE CITY — The technology that will power the Chevrolet Volt when it is expected to launch late next year is well known, but General Motors is betting that an Ann Arbor company is developing the battery that will power the car’s next generation.

Sakti3, an Ann Arbor startup company, is developing solid-state lithium-ion battery technology, which CEO Ann Marie Sastry says she hopes will replace the wet slurry lithium ion technology that will go into the Volt’s high-tech battery.

Sastry was part of the Advanced Powertrain panel at Ann Arbor-based Center for Automotive Research’s Management Briefing Seminar autos conference in Traverse City. Sakti3 is a spinoff business from the University of Michigan, where Sastry is professor of material sciences.

The Volt will use a lithium-ion battery to power the vehicle for up to 40 miles before a gasoline engine generator starts to power the vehicle through the electric motors. Owners will be able to recharge the car from an electrical outlet. GM believes that most owners will not have to use the gasoline engine for their daily commute. When longer trips are necessary, the gasoline engine will provide range similar to other gasoline-powered vehicles.

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