afransen
Senior Member
The gist of the article: GM is serious about the electric car again, with possible rollout of a line of electric (with IC supplemental power) cars around 2010 - 2012.
It's too bad that Lithium Ion is the technology they have to work with. Recent discoveries of quick-charge battery technology (which can reach 80% charge in 5 minutes) sound quite promising for application to automotives. I'm guessing nanotechnology is going to make batteries a whole lot more attractive over the next 15 or so years, mainly because battery technology is going to be absolutely critical to a post-carbon economy.
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GM adds new spark to electric car's future
Gerry Malloy
Jun 23, 2007
When General Motors introduced its Chevrolet Volt concept car with great fanfare at the Detroit Auto Show in January, there were skeptics among us.
"Just another futuristic technological exercise to divert attention from the need to do something now," was essentially the assessment of more than one pundit. And while others found it technically interesting, many doubted the concept would ever make it to production.
They just might have been wrong.
GM brought the Volt to Toronto this week for its first Canadian showing, at the 2007 Environment and Energy Conference – an event for leaders from both industry and government to address environmental and energy issues of the Great Lakes region.
At the conference, Nick Zielinski, chief engineer for advanced vehicle development at GM, brought attendees up to date on the status of the Volt and its E-Flex powertrain, and what has occurred since its Detroit debut.
The Volt, as you may recall, is an electric car.
That's right. The company skewered in a recent documentary for killing the electric car is developing and promoting one again.
The biggest difference from the first time around is that this electric car appears to have potential commercial feasibility.
In purely technical terms it's a "series hybrid." But GM prefers to call it a "range-extended" electric vehicle because the way it works is quite different from the "parallel hybrids" we have come to accept as typifying a hybrid.
True, the Volt incorporates a gasoline internal combustion (IC) engine, as well as an electric motor. But unlike other hybrids, the IC engine never directly drives the wheels.
They are not even directly connected. The engine's only purpose is to drive a generator to recharge batteries which then provide power to the electric motor.
Those batteries can also be recharged by plugging the vehicle into a conventional 120-volt AC household outlet.
A full recharge takes six hours and that's sufficient for 64 km of city driving without the IC engine ever engaging, GM says. So if your daily commute is less than 64 km, you might never have to buy gas.
If you need to go further, however, the IC engine will extend the range to more than 1,000 km, with average fuel consumption of less than 5.0 L/100 km.
Significantly, Zielinsky revealed, both the Volt and its E-Flex powertrain, which has wider potential application, are being developed as production programs – not R&D exercises.
And the Volt and its derivatives are being integrated into the development of GM's next-generation small cars (Chevrolet Cobalt, Opel/Satun Astra), with which it will share its primary structure.
There are still some technical hurdles to be cleared before a production date can be set, Zielinsky says, but when they are overcome, production can be started quickly.
He wouldn't speculate how soon, but others have suggested between 2010 and 2012.
Chief among the obstacles remaining is the development of lithium-ion battery packs – the kind of batteries typically used in cellphones and laptop computers – for automotive use.
The batteries themselves aren't the main issue. They are already well proven.
The issue is connecting the individual low-voltage batteries together in packs to provide the high-voltage output necessary for automotive use – with the levels of safety, reliability and durability required.
GM recently awarded advanced development contracts for battery-pack development to two suppliers, Compact Power Inc. and Continental Automotive Systems. Such contracts are typically a first step beyond the research stage toward a production contract.
Indeed, it appears, the electric car is far from dead!
It's too bad that Lithium Ion is the technology they have to work with. Recent discoveries of quick-charge battery technology (which can reach 80% charge in 5 minutes) sound quite promising for application to automotives. I'm guessing nanotechnology is going to make batteries a whole lot more attractive over the next 15 or so years, mainly because battery technology is going to be absolutely critical to a post-carbon economy.
------------------
GM adds new spark to electric car's future
Gerry Malloy
Jun 23, 2007
When General Motors introduced its Chevrolet Volt concept car with great fanfare at the Detroit Auto Show in January, there were skeptics among us.
"Just another futuristic technological exercise to divert attention from the need to do something now," was essentially the assessment of more than one pundit. And while others found it technically interesting, many doubted the concept would ever make it to production.
They just might have been wrong.
GM brought the Volt to Toronto this week for its first Canadian showing, at the 2007 Environment and Energy Conference – an event for leaders from both industry and government to address environmental and energy issues of the Great Lakes region.
At the conference, Nick Zielinski, chief engineer for advanced vehicle development at GM, brought attendees up to date on the status of the Volt and its E-Flex powertrain, and what has occurred since its Detroit debut.
The Volt, as you may recall, is an electric car.
That's right. The company skewered in a recent documentary for killing the electric car is developing and promoting one again.
The biggest difference from the first time around is that this electric car appears to have potential commercial feasibility.
In purely technical terms it's a "series hybrid." But GM prefers to call it a "range-extended" electric vehicle because the way it works is quite different from the "parallel hybrids" we have come to accept as typifying a hybrid.
True, the Volt incorporates a gasoline internal combustion (IC) engine, as well as an electric motor. But unlike other hybrids, the IC engine never directly drives the wheels.
They are not even directly connected. The engine's only purpose is to drive a generator to recharge batteries which then provide power to the electric motor.
Those batteries can also be recharged by plugging the vehicle into a conventional 120-volt AC household outlet.
A full recharge takes six hours and that's sufficient for 64 km of city driving without the IC engine ever engaging, GM says. So if your daily commute is less than 64 km, you might never have to buy gas.
If you need to go further, however, the IC engine will extend the range to more than 1,000 km, with average fuel consumption of less than 5.0 L/100 km.
Significantly, Zielinsky revealed, both the Volt and its E-Flex powertrain, which has wider potential application, are being developed as production programs – not R&D exercises.
And the Volt and its derivatives are being integrated into the development of GM's next-generation small cars (Chevrolet Cobalt, Opel/Satun Astra), with which it will share its primary structure.
There are still some technical hurdles to be cleared before a production date can be set, Zielinsky says, but when they are overcome, production can be started quickly.
He wouldn't speculate how soon, but others have suggested between 2010 and 2012.
Chief among the obstacles remaining is the development of lithium-ion battery packs – the kind of batteries typically used in cellphones and laptop computers – for automotive use.
The batteries themselves aren't the main issue. They are already well proven.
The issue is connecting the individual low-voltage batteries together in packs to provide the high-voltage output necessary for automotive use – with the levels of safety, reliability and durability required.
GM recently awarded advanced development contracts for battery-pack development to two suppliers, Compact Power Inc. and Continental Automotive Systems. Such contracts are typically a first step beyond the research stage toward a production contract.
Indeed, it appears, the electric car is far from dead!
