Big news on the Volt front.

GM's Bob Lutz has told Edmunds.com's Michelle Krebs that on-street testing of the series hybrid powertrain for the much-anticipated Chevrolet Volt has finally begun and that the Volt team is now aiming at a November, 2010, launch for the game-changing vehicle.

Lutz also said that in the test mule – a modified Chevy Malibu – the gas-electric plug-in powertrain is hitting GM's goal of providing 40 miles of all-electric travel before the gasoline-burning internal combustion engine kicks in to do its job of generating more electricity to keep the Volt running at full power.

The Volt, first introduced as a concept at the 2007 Detroit Auto Show, will use a lithium ion battery pack to store and provide juice for the electric drive motor. The gas engine is there only to generate electricity when the initial battery charge – obtained by plugging-in to the commercial electrical grid overnight – is depleted. 

There still are challenges to overcome, many of them linked to integrating the battery and gas generator for the smoothest and most sensible operating profile.

But Lutz said that despite concerns rival Toyota Motor Corp. and others in the industry have voiced about the reliability and safety of lithium ion batteries in automotive use, GM's engineers have overcome thermal issues. Now, he said, "I can almost say that the battery is the least of our concerns."

He wouldn't tell Michelle which of the battery systems being developed for the Volt by various contractors is being used in the test mule that took to the pubic streets Tuesday around GM's Milford proving grounds.

But his assurances that most battery issues have been resolved are good news in the global hunt for alternatives to cars and trucks that require fossil fuels.

You can read her exclusive interview with Lutz, GM's vice chairman and global product guru, at Edmunds AutoObserver.

John O'Dell, Senior Editor

GM's Equinox Fuel Cell Vehicle in "stealth"  garb for publicity-shy celebs.

By John O'Dell, Senior Editor

It's been almost two weeks since we took GM's fuel cell Equinox for an extended spin – the first loan of one of the hydrogen-powered cars to a journalist, the company says.

(Yes, we're bragging, but we also mention that because, well, because we're bragging.) 

Anyhow, time to stop dithering and start reporting.

The news is that, I'm happy to report, the Equinox Fuel Cell Electric Vehicle, or FCEV, is quite a bit faster than GM publicly admits (more about that a little later) and is as comfortable and driveable as I'd remembered from a short spin during a press event back in October.

I'd been bugging GM for months to let us have one to use for a week or so we could see how it stood up to the daily grind in Southern California traffic with a variety of drivers from the Edmunds stable behind the wheel.

That hasn't happened – the hydrogen station being built near our office in Santa Monica hasn't opened yet and GM won't let us have one for a prolonged period until there's fuel nearby.

But the company did agree to let Green Car Advisor have one overnight, with restrictions – no refueling, so no long trips.

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By Robert E. Calem, Contributor

General Motors Corp. says it has achieved a new milestone in the development of an experimental fuel combustion technology called homogenous charge compression ignition, and can now operate an HCCI engine at much lower speeds than previously possible.

HCCI technology mimics a diesel engine, igniting a mixture of fuel and air by compressing it in the cylinder, but it works with gasoline like a traditional spark ignition engine.

And unlike either of those other engine technologies, HCCI burns the fuel at a low temperature and throughout the entire combustion chamber – yielding the power of a gasoline engine and the torque of a diesel with greater fuel economy and lower carbon dioxide emissions than either.

GM, which previously was unable to operate an experimental engine in HCCI mode at speeds below 15 miles per hour,  demonstrated operation in the fuel-saving mode at idle this week in a specially modified Saturn Aura test vehicle.

Demonstrations in Washington, D. C. and White Plains, N.Y., also marked the first time journalists were permitted to drive a vehicle with an HCCI engine on public streets.

The prototype engine operates in both HCCI and regular spark-ignition modes, but did not operate in HCCI mode at idle when initially demonstrated to the press last August at a GM test track.

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By Scott Doggett, Contributor

If a seven-man contingent representing the biggest automakers thought they could talk California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger into terminating his campaign to force them to meet California's stringent fuel-efficiency standards, they were sadly mistaken.
 
Following a private, 45-minute meeting Thursday  with executives from Toyota, General Motors, Ford, Chrysler and BMW, the governor has released a statement that reads, in part:
 
“... I made it clear to the automakers that California will not back down in the fight to protect our own environment by regulating pollution that causes global warming. We will continue to press the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to grant our request for a waiver, and we will use legal remedies if they fail to do so.
 
“Hiding behind the federal government's proposed CAFE standards won't work, and it won't effectively reduce the pollution that causes global warming. In fact, I believe the federal government should adopt California's model; with 13 other states on board, we are heading in the right direction,” Schwarzenegger said.
 
Schwarzenegger referred to the EPA's denial of a waiver that would allow California to regulate greenhouse-gas emissions from vehicles sold in the state – regulations that are more stringent than the federal government's.

 If California receives the waiver – and the three major presidential candidates have all said they support the request, which the Bush Administration sat on for two years before denying – at least 13 other states would adopt or are considering adopting California's tailpipe-emissions rules.
 
Calls placed to the Michigan and Sacramento offices of the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, which sent representatives to the meeting, went unanswered.
 
The following industry representatives attended the meeting: Troy Clarke, president of General Motors North America and chairman of the Alliance; James Lentz, president of Toyota Motor Sales, USA; James Press, vice chairman and president of Chrysler; Jim O’Donnell, president and chief operating officer, BMW North America; Ziad Ojakli, vice president of government and community relations, Ford Motor Company; David Geanacopoulos, vice president and general counsel, Volkswagen of America; and Dave McCurdy, president and chief executive officer of the Alliance.
 
Schwarzenegger's entire statement can be read at the governor's website. 

Oh, to be a fly on the wall in the governor's office, easily overlooked while overlooking and overhearing all.

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who last year told the Big 3 automakers to "Get off your butt" and meet the state's tailpipe emissions regulations, is scheduled to sit down with representatives from Ford, General Motors, Chrysler and Toyota at the state Capitol in Sacramento Thursday.

The meeting, at the automakers' request, comes just two weeks after 12 governors, led by Schwarzenegger, threatened legal action against the Bush administration for trying to prohibit states from setting automotive emissions limits.

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 After a speech Thursday at San Francisco's Commonwealth Club, General Motors Chairman Rick Wagoner was asked if the Chevrolet Volt -- still two-plus years away but already starring in the automaker's TV ads -- would be GM's Prius.

The high-mileage, gas-electric car from Toyota Motor Corp. still dominates hybrid sales nearly a decade after it first went on sale in the U.S.

 "We think it could be a big game-changer.," said Wagoner, an executive not prone to over-statement.

"When we get it to the market, we'll see. If we deliver on what we have on the drawing board, I think it's going to show a lot of people that we've got great technology at GM and we can compete with anybody in that field."

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By Dale Buss, Contributor

With its second major equity investment in a biofuels startup company in the space of five just months, General Motors is moving front and center in what may become a pivotal global economic development of our time: the rapid rise of the cellulosic-ethanol industry.

GM’s announcement on Thursday that it has made an equity investment in a Boston-based company, Mascoma Corp., is a bookend to its January deal to help fund Coskata Inc., based in Warrendale, Ill.

The two companies, partially nurtured by academics, use two different processes to yield similar crucial results: the production of ethanol for fuel from non-grain, essentially waste sources.

Mascoma's single-step cellulose-to-ethanol method is called consolidated bioprocessing, which uses cellulosic biomass such as woodchips and switchgrass in a formula that lowers costs by limiting additives and enzymes that are brought into other biochemical processes. Mascoma expects to begin producing ethanol later this year at a demonstration plant under construction in Rome,  N.Y.

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Plug-in hybrids are seen by many, including Magna, as the next great  frontier.

By John O'Dell, Senior Editor

Another entry in the plug-in hybrid race, this time from a competitor with really powerful potential.

Magna International, the top-tier Canadian auto parts maker, says it will roll out a plug-in car late next year or in 2010.

So as not to foul relationships with the major automakers that it already supplies with scores of parts, Magna says it won't sell a competing plug-in but will sell them the bits and pieces needed to make their own.

In markets where its customers don't sell cars, though, Magna intends to field a complete plug-in under its own brand.

The company, which reported $26.1 billion in sales and a $663 million net profit last year, is serious about becoming a car maker.

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By Dale Buss, Contributor

Prabhakar Patil is used to taking the battery and running with it.

The company he heads, Compact Power, is one of two suppliers of the lithium-ion batteries General Motors is testing to outfit its hypercritical Volt plug-in hybrid project. But the high-pressure task before him only reminds Patil of a decade ago, when he was Employee One in Ford’s crash initiative to develop the Escape Hybrid.

"At the time, I was manager of electrical and electronics for Ford production vehicles," recalls Patil.

"Alex Trotman was [Ford] CEO, and Toyota had just introduced Prius. I got my assignment in the backseat of a Prius when he and I were being driven around, and [Trotman] said, 'Develop a hybrid for Ford.'"

Patil began immediately to build his Escape Hybrid team. He had a crew of about a half-dozen within a month and the team peaked at an enterprise of about 300 people before Ford introduced the vehicle in 2004 as the first hybrid SUV on the American market.

Patil came to Compact Power, a unit of the Korean chaebol LG Group, in late 2005, again as Employee One of what promised to be an ambitious enterprise to produce a market-leading lithium-ion battery and powertrain for the burgeoning U.S. hybrid market.

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Ford is among the companies working on plug-in gas-electric hybrids.

In a bid to promote plug-in hybrid development, the University of California's Davis campus is cosponsoring what it calls the world's first international conference on plug-in hybrid electric vehicles.

The confab, to be held July 22-24 in San Jose, California, appears to be in response to California's recent endorsement of plug-in technology in the revision of its controversial Zero Emission Vehicles (ZEV) Mandate.

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