GM confident Chevrolet Volt will succeed
June 18, 2008 by Alborz Fallah
With Toyota and GM both working overtime to deliver the world’s first Lithium Ion powered hybrid, the old General might just win the race with the Chevrolet Volt.
GM Vice Chairman Bob Lutz told reported on Monday that he is confident GM will deliver the all-electric Chevrolet Volt by 2010, as is in the final stages of announcing a supplier for the vehicle’s controversial battery.
“I would say there’s almost no reasonable doubt in our minds anymore that this is going to work,” said Lutz, who heads vehicle development for GM.
The aim for GM is build a car which can last for at least 64km (40 miles) on battery power alone. But with Toyota having issues with Lithium Ion batteries and even some of GM’s executives questioning the reliability and readiness of these next-generation lithium-ion batteries, we do have to wonder if GM will come good on its promise.
Mr Lutz said the current test vehicles have been able to achieve the company’s desired distance.
“They’ve routinely had it to the high 30s (48km), low 40s (64km) and they go up hills with it and everything,” he said.
Toyota plans to have Lithium Ion batteries out and about in the next-generation Toyota Prius by around the same time. Will GM’s Volt do for the company what the Prius did for the Big T?
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Thats a cool motor. Whats the performance overall going to be like, speed n all that. Toyota certainly now how to do the so-called eco stuff but GM can do it with more style.
I’ll sign a cheque now if it comes to the UK.
What kind of crap is this. Whoever saw “Who killed the electric car?” from Sony will think differently of those statements. If you haven’t seen it watch it (youtube.com). GM was leasing the EV1 for 6 years until they succeeded in fighting the law where they had to build an electric car. Then they canceled the lease and took the cars back from their (un)happy owners. The reality is: No car manufacturer, no oil company not even the government wants an electric car since there is no money in it: less parts, cheap like a washing machine and no fuel to sell. And what they do is bullshitting everyone.
40 miles?????!!! What a load of crap. Go to http://www.teslamotors.com to see what’s possible.
I bet they could double the maximum range if they got rid of some of that ridiculous bulk that the car in the picture has.
I agree Carl – The Tesla looks alot better and it has the performance to match.
64Km!!! That would even get me to work and back! It really goes to show how behind GM is in alternative technologies.
As for the tesla … When can I have one???
Lazybones – toyota is having just as much trouble getting the prius to travel a meaninful distance on battery power alone. Ever driven a prius? except when your stopped at lights, the petrol engine is nearly always running. It’s not just GM that is struggling
See later story on imminent entry of chinese made cars into Australia, then look up BYD (Build Your Dreams!!) Automotive – Chinese car company owned by one of the biggest Li Ion battery manufacturers in the world. They will beat both Toyota and GM to the mark with a PHEV costing half as much.
“toyota is having just as much trouble getting the prius to travel a meaninful distance on battery power alone”
Yes, so i’ve heard. You can also checkout calcars.org to see what they are doing with the Prius. Keep in mind Toyota aren’t the only players in the EV game. It will be interesting to compare a full plug in Prius with the volt, but either way 64K isn’t going to cut it for most. You’d think with GM’s history of the electic car they would make them light years ahead, but they have become an utter joke recently.
Re Release the Ev1, stop dangling a crappy carrot. The truth is car companies arent half serious about releasing a serious mid range electric. Who makes the money, the guy who sold you the horse or the guy that sells you the chalf?? bad batteries etc etc crap.
Get a copy of “Who Killed The Electric Car” (Sony Pictures) from Amazon.com and learn about GM’s EV-1, or just read ev1.org/
They built a whole fleet of them over TEN years ago. They were fully developed, highly successful, as fast as a Ferrari and users begged to buy them, but they were all recalled from their (lessee) users and crushed! All except ONE – which was stripped of its innards (so it couldn’t be copied) and the body shell was donated to a car museum. Why was the EV-1 project killed off? Because GM realised that they were virtually maintenance free and they’d make nothing in after-sales revenue, and in cahoots with the oil companies, they killed the electric car for their own corporate reasons, in other words, greed!
Toyota also built a fleet of fully electric RAV-4 models, also highly successful, but they died too because the company that made the batteries (as also happened with the EV-1) was bought by oil companies and the batteries became unavailable.
The EV-1 was developed and built to comply with California’s new (at the time) Zero Emissions mandate, but General Motors and the oil companies hounded the Government into submission and the Zero Emissions bill was withdrawn, after which all the EV-1’s were recalled and destroyed. A blatant conspiracy by vested interests to keep electric cars off our roads!
IF the Chevy Volt ever sees tarmac it won’t be because they want to build it but because they are forced to, and if oil prices plummet then production of the Volt will probably be scaled back. Why didn’t they just revive the EV1 which was already fully developed? We could have had viable fully electric vehicles a decade ago and saved how much GHG pollution in the process? And GM should be ashamed that they didn’t take the opportunity to make that happen when they could have, which means they care little about the environment with this new car and only care about what they think they can sell. I’ll believe the Chevy Volt exists when I can buy one and drive it!
I’ve also seen Who killed the Electric Car and I have no confidence that General Motors is genuine. I’ll bet there will be a long waiting list for the Volt and production will be slow while they keep selling their gasoline powered cars (as will be their desire). There will be all sorts of excuses why they can’t make them fast enough. GM are just like governments – they want to look like they are doing something when their heart isn’t in it at all.
We could have had hybrids long ago in existing platforms with little (if any) re-engineering – just a generator in place of a gearbox and an electric motor attached to the differential instead of a drive shaft. A small diesel engine can drive the generator (and any engine is far more efficient at constant high revs than one that is going up and down through the gears). Diesel-electric locomotives have used this system for 50 years.
Car manufacturers would barely have to change anything in their present body designs to incorporate such a system, just merely substitute a generator for the gearbox or transmission and fit an electric motor to the existing rear axle and differential design. So simple but they won’t do it, while many workshops outside of the manufacturers are already successfully converting cars in this way.