Eideard

The plug-in hybrid Chevy Volt, made by General Motors, and the all-electric Nissan Leaf save on fuel , but the size and weight of their battery packs add significant crash protection as well.

“The Leaf and Volt’s extra mass gives them a safety advantage over other small cars,” Joe Nolan, chief administrative officer of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety said on Tuesday.

The closely watched group, underwritten by insurance companies, crash tested the two first generation 2011 plug-ins that were introduced late last year as the ultimate for consumers in fuel economy.

Both earned top safety ratings, an early validation for experts who say automakers do not have to sacrifice safety for better fuel economy, that advanced technologies can achieve both…

“What powers the wheels is different, but the level of safety for the Volt and Leaf is as high as any of our other top crash test performers,” Nolan said…

The Volt and the Leaf are classified as small cars but their battery packs raise their weight closer to mid-size and larger ones…

The findings also contrasted with a lackluster Volt endorsement earlier this year from Consumer Reports on efficiency. I don’t know any experienced, savvy auto geeks who consider Consumer Reports to be anything other than incompetent, opportunist.

GM said the review was hasty. I’d say sleazy – with CR’s mind made up in advance.

This article doesn’t take the time to note special consideration made for first-responders in the very different designs of these two cars. Fire and police departments around the world have taken the time to add a bit of extra training to be certain they are prepared to deal with the much larger batteries in these critters. The manufacturers have added incident power cutoffs to aid in safety.

General Motors said on Thursday that it was withdrawing its application to borrow $14.4 billion from a pool of federal money intended to help automakers build more fuel-efficient vehicles.

G.M., whose request had been pending with the Energy Department for 15 months, said the decision was based on improved cash reserves and a desire to avoid more debt. The company was profitable in 2010 and had $33.5 billion in cash and marketable securities as of Sept. 30 — much of it the result of federal loans related to its 2009 bankruptcy filing — up from $22.8 billion a year ago.

“This decision is based on our confidence in G.M.’s overall progress and strong, global business performance,” Christopher P. Liddell, G.M.’s chief financial officer, said in a statement. “Withdrawing our D.O.E. loan application is consistent with our goal to carry minimal debt on our balance sheet…”

Congress created the $25 billion fund in 2008, and the Energy Department has lent about $8.5 billion of it so far. The Ford Motor Company received $5.9 billion — about half the amount it requested — with smaller amounts going to Nissan, Tesla and Fisker…

G.M. said that, even without the retooling loans, it had invested $3.4 billion in its American plants since emerging from bankruptcy, creating or retaining 11,000 jobs. Much of the upgrade was related to the manufacture of new high-mileage cars like the Chevrolet Cruze and Volt as well as batteries…

Separately Thursday, G.M. said it was accelerating the introduction of the Volt, a plug-in hybrid, in response to customer demand. Dealers in all 50 states will be able to take orders in the second quarter and start receiving the cars in the second half of the year. Previously, G.M. had said the Volt would not be available nationwide until mid-2012.

They’re also talking about doubling production of the Volt. Reception from retail customers has been better than anything they might have hoped for – at least what automotive journalists stuck into the carbon cycle thought they would get.

About two months before two new plug-in cars go on sale in the United States, the federal government is struggling with how to rate the fuel economy of mass-market plug-in vehicles.

How the Environmental Protection Agency rates the two cars, the Chevrolet Volt and Nissan Leaf, could have a big influence on consumers’ perceptions of vehicles that run on electricity. General Motors, which makes the Volt, and Nissan are anxiously awaiting the agency’s decision as they start production of the cars and complete marketing plans for rollouts in December.

Providing the customary city and highway miles-per-gallon information would make little sense for the Volt, which can drive 25 to 50 miles on battery power before its gas engine kicks on, and even less so for the Leaf, which is powered by only a rechargeable battery.

Cathy Milbourn, a spokeswoman for the E.P.A., declined to specify a date when the new ratings might be released, saying only that they would come “shortly.”

There’s a fair bit of geek introspection in the article. Most of which is irrelevant to the average vehicle purchase.

I understand and agree with all the other good stuff about pollution and climate change. Cripes – I’ve been an advocate for positive change for long enough. But, that average consumer we always consider ain’t bringing in all the guidelines to choose their new ride. They want to know what it costs. That’s all. That’s enough.

Korea-based LG Chem is the lithium-ion battery supplier for GM’s Chevrolet Volt electric car.

GM has been working closely with LG’s Michigan-based subsidiary Compact Power Inc. since mid-2007 to first develop and then refine the Volts’ 16 kwh battery pack. In January of 2009 it was announced that LG had been awarded the Volt’s battery contract. Since then, hundreds of packs have been built, and GM has launched its own battery pack production facility which has been operational since January.

The lithium-ion cells have been manufactured on a line at LG Chem’s battery plant in Korea, where the cells for the initial production run of Volts will continue to come from.

The source of these cells will soon change to the USA.

LG Chem has announced it will invest $303 Million to build a lithium-ion cell manufacturing plant in Holland Michigan. The 650,000 square foot plant will create 400 jobs and be capable of producing from 15 to 20 million prismatic automotive cells per year, which is enough to sustain a production capacity of around 60,000 Chevy Volts per year…

Groundbreaking on the facility, which will be located on a 120 acre site in Holland Michigan, is expected to begin this summer and the plant will be fully operational in 2012.

Keeping GM in business begins to turn a profit and several billion$ in loan repayment is on schedule.

Oh, and don’t forget to tune on in Republicans trying to tell the 400 families who will have someone working at this factory – that the Obama stimulus package and the GM loan was worthless.

It was exactly three years ago today that the original Chevrolet Volt concept rolled onto the stage at the 2007 Detroit Auto Show. Last summer we visited a facility in Brownstown Township, MI that General Motors had chosen as the location for production of battery packs for the production Chevrolet Volt…

The battery packs that are being produced – starting today – are full production hardware specification units, but GM engineers are still tweaking the management software in an attempt to maximize range and lifespan. Between now and November, the plant will be producing several hundred packs that will be used for a variety of development tasks. Some will be heading straight into the cyclers at the test lab in Warren, MI. Most of the rest will be going into the pilot and production verification Volts that will begin rolling out of the Detroit Hamtramck assembly plant by April…

We asked Denise Grey about the cost of the batteries since this remains one of the big issues in making the Volt a big seller. Many estimates have put the cost of automotive lithium ion battery systems at up to $1,000/kWh. However, Grey echoed what program management VP Jon Laukner told us previously: The current cost of the Volt pack is much lower than that. While neither would be nailed down on specifics, they indicated that the cost was currently around $500-600/kWh, which puts the 16 kWh pack in the $8,000-9,500 range. Grey tells ABG that GM is working closely with suppliers to cost optimize all of the pack’s components and hopes to hit the US Advanced Battery Consortium target of $300/kWh by 2015.

Finally, we asked…about launching the Volt earlier than November. …It is unlikely that it will appear any sooner than November 2010. At best, the car might be in some showrooms a few weeks earlier than planned, but certainly not months sooner. Nonetheless, Peterson emphasized that by the end of 2010, Chevrolet will have “well over 1,000 Volts” on the road, including the pilot build and production verification vehicles that are coming out this summer.

Cripes, I just noticed they’re using a Webb “Smart Cart”. Back in the day, way back – I would have loved to work for Webb.

Between Wall Street analysts, the more sectarian enviros and beancounters with button-down wallets, lots of folks predicted the Volt project would vanish along with dollars stuffed into the hold of some yacht club refugee. Everything right now looks and feels like just another appropriate industrial package wending its way to the showroom floor. As they used to – when the captains of American industry cared about something more than foreign exchange rates.

The news from Bob Lutz’s opening keynote address for the LA Auto Show was that GM would be working with some California utilities to test a fleet of 100 Volts. But there was a lot more delivered in that speech and, in the best Lutz-ian tradition, the message was clear and simple: the Volt is GM’s most important product. Oh, and he would not be addressing the abrupt resignation of GM CEO Fritz Henderson.

[Poisonally, I think Henderson blew up the Saab sale]

At times, Lutz sounded like a regular ABG reader, name dropping Fisker and Coda and saying he was thankful to Tesla Motors for “furnishing the proof that was needed by those of us who championed the Volt in the corporation that other people believed in lithium-ion technology as well.” Now that pretty much every automaker has at least a small li-ion project, he feels vindicated for his early support of the Volt, even though he apparently took some heat for it back then.

How confident is he? He said that he predicted that the market for plug-in vehicles would be about 250,00-300,000 in five years, with maybe half of those being GM vehicles…

At GM, we deeply believe that, in an energy-constrained world marked by dramatic growth in developing markets, it is critical that the global automotive industry – as a business necessity and as an obligation to society – develop alternative sources of propulsion based on diverse sources of energy. … Going forward, the automobile industry simply can no longer rely on oil to supply 98 percent of the world’s automotive energy requirements…

Three years ago, when the Volt was announced, there were many critics (especially the Japanese competitors, he said) who said that li-ion would never work in an automobile. Now, three calendar years and countless testing years later, Lutz said that GM is confident that the 16 kWh pack in the Volt will be more than up to the task of powering the Volt. The batteries are being designed to perform as advertised for ten years, but if the battery fails in the 11th year, the customer would need to bring it in and have it replaced, which will likely cost about as much as an engine overhaul on a traditional gasoline-powered car, Lutz said. “I don’t see why it should cost more than that.”

RTFA to see the details. It contains links to a recording of the keynote.

Daylife/AP Photo used by permission

GM CEO Fritz Henderson announced today that the Chevrolet Volt extended range electric car has been given an official EPA rating of more than 230 MPG city and a combined city/highway average fuel economy of more than 100 MPG.

He said the EPA has developed a new federal fuel economy methodology draft for PHEVs.

Using this technique, the Volt will become the first mass produced vehicle to obtain a triple digit MPG rating. He also noted using this system the Volt is determined to have an efficiency of 25 kwh/100 miles. Considering the cost of electricity this amounts to 3 cents per mile.

“From the data we’ve seen, many Chevy Volt drivers may be able to be in pure electric mode on a daily basis without having to use any gas,” said GM Chief Executive Officer Fritz Henderson. “EPA labels are a yardstick for customers to compare the fuel efficiency of vehicles. So, a vehicle like the Volt that achieves a composite triple-digit fuel economy is a game-changer.”

The methodology assumes in city driving the car will mostly operate on electricity but some degree of gas operation is taken into account. The petroleum equivalence of electricity and a utility factor weighing in the population’s driving behavior are also included in the calculation.

Well, rock my socks! Should be an interesting exercise to run the imminent Toyota Prius PHEV or Volkswagen’s plug-in diesel-hybrid through the same equations and see what comes up?

General Motors Corp has unveiled the production version of its highly anticipated Chevrolet Volt, a plug-in electric car that is the centerpiece of its effort to move away from gas-guzzling SUVs and recharge sagging sales.

Chief Executive Rick Wagoner introduced the small, curvy four-seater at the automaker’s Detroit headquarters during an event to celebrate GM’s 100th anniversary.

In what has been billed as a race with Toyota Motor Corp to be the first to market with a plug-in car, GM has pushed hard to develop the Volt in time for it to hit showrooms in 2010. Fanfare surrounding the Volt comes as the No. 1 U.S. automaker has been struggling with flagging sales of less-efficient sport-utility vehicles and pickup trucks amid soaring prices at the pump.

Those high gasoline prices, the credit crunch and a slowing economy have dragged U.S. auto sales down to 15-year lows. GM’s sales in particular were down 18.5 percent in the first eight months of the year. Fuel-saving hybrid electric cars — like Toyota’s popular Prius model — have been one of the few bright spots for the industry in 2008 so far.
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