GM Shows Volt Teaser, Announces EV Design Studio
Studio shot of Chevrolet Volt test model hints at design changes under way.
Think General Motors isn't serious about the Volt and other electric vehicles?
Well, the company has just announced that it is opening a new design studio dedicated to the same.
If that's all part of an elaborate hoax to make us think the General has seen the error of its ways, it's a pretty expensive way to go about it.
The E-Flex Systems Design Studio will have 45 designers, model makers, engineers and support staff under Bob Boniface, the GM designer who led the team that did the original Volt concept's exterior.
"We handpicked a team of both young and experienced designers who are enthusiastic, eager and believe in the cause as I do," Boniface said in a statement. The goal: "To find a solution to our dependency on petroleum."
GM claims the studio is the only one in the industry, worldwide, dedicated to – in the words of the press release writer -- "designing a wide variety of electric plug-in vehicles with a range extender."
That's GM's definition of the E-Flex system that was first shown with the Volt, which uses a small flex-fuel internal combustion engine working as a generator to recharge a large battery pack that provides power for an electric motor that actually moves the car.
Other variations could generate power while under way with a hydrogen fuel cell or an internal combustion generator burning diesel or other types of fuel. The key point is that the vehicle itself is driven only by its electric motor and that the batteries can be recharged by plugging into the commercial power grid when the car isn't in use.
Concurrent with its Monday announcement of the new studio, GM released a teaser shot of a wind tunnel model that could foreshadow what the production Volt – or at least its front end – will look like.
The original concept was a low, long-hooded, four-place coupe with knife-edged corners and the aggressive stance of a 100-meter sprinter in the blocks.
Unfortunately for fans of the look, shown at right, it had the aerodynamics of a toaster oven.
Designers and engineers working on a production version have reduced drag by 30 percent so far, while – as the photo at left shows – managing to keep the low roofline and a semblance of the concept's front fascia.
Lowering drag is critical as aerodynamics can account for 20 percent or more of a vehicle's energy consumption. GM has more or less promised that the production Volt, expected to hit showrooms by the end of 2010, will be able to achieve 40 miles of all-electric travel on a fully charged battery pack before the onboard generator-motor kicks in and starts burning petrol.
GM's initial plan called for powerful, lightweight lithium-ion batteries that so far haven't been proven safe or reliable enough for prolonged automotive use.
If GM has to revert to heavier, less power-intense nickel-metal-hydride batteries, the car's going to need to shed all the drag it can. Or the result will be a real drag on that green image the automaker's trying to forge for itself.
- Posted by
- John O'Dell December 10, 2007, 5:59 PM
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- Alternative Fuels, Diesel, Flex-Fuel, Fuel Cell, General Motors, Hydrogen, Plug-ins and Electric
Only Li-ion can give the Volt the 40-mile range that Lutz et al have been touting for a year now. NiMH just won't cut it; can't store enough energy and deliver the power within the volume that GM is allocating for batteries.
Talking to the GM battery folks, I get the feeling they're more confident now than they were a few months ago. They've received 2 battery packs from Compact Power and they'll say publicly that the results from tests to date track their predictive models pretty closely.
Will the Li-ion packs prove good enough to make the late 2010 date? Hard to say. But FORGET about NiMH. As far as anything I've heard, that's not even an option.