Feature
2011 Chevy Volt: Will GM Get It Done?
A Progress Report on GM's Plug-in EV From a Former EV1 Insider
When Rick Wagoner, the chairman and CEO of General Motors, walked onto the stage at the 2007 Detroit Auto Show to introduce what has become the 2011 Chevrolet Volt, he might as well have said that GM was going to build a flying car.
Sure, it's a cool idea to have an electric vehicle (EV) that has the ability to drive 40 miles on power from a lithium-ion battery pack, recharge its batteries on the go from a small gasoline engine for a total cruising range of 400 miles, and then plug into the electric power grid at night for a complete recharge. But it sounds like another one of GM's pronouncements of its intention to remake the American industrial landscape, something it does with comical frequency. Remember the 1960 Chevy Corvair, 1971 Chevy Vega, 1976 Chevy Chevette, 1985 Chevy Nova and 1990 Saturn S1?
And what has come of it all? Did you see any flying cars on the way to work today?
It makes you wonder about the chances that GM will come through with the 2011 Chevy Volt with its E-Flex electric powertrain. After all, haven't we been through this before with the 1996 GM EV1?
It's a question I've asked myself, since I was there inside General Motors, working on the GM EV1.
Who Killed the Electric Car? You Did
Most people view the GM EV1 as a dismal failure. Viewed from strictly a marketing perspective, they are right.
The auto industry's first (and so far only) modern, purpose-built, battery-powered electric car for the wide-open American highway was an absolute technology triumph, the most practical, energy-efficient four-wheeled vehicle ever to roll down the road. Even so, fewer than 1,000 EV1s were built between 1996 and 1999. Barely 800 were leased to customers before GM pulled the car's (ahem) plug.
The EV1 had its beginnings with the bullet-shaped Impact EV concept car, unveiled at the 1990 Los Angeles Auto Show, followed by a surprise announcement that April by then-GM Chairman Roger Smith, a sound technological partnership (Hughes Electronics) and majestic promises of the future. (Sounds just like the Chevy Volt, doesn't it?) Five months later, California announced a decision to mandate sales of battery EVs, ready or not, for the seven top-selling automakers. If GM can do it, they figured, we'll make everyone do it. Turned out nobody could do it. Ultimately, no car company was able to market battery EVs in volume at a price most people would pay or with a range most would accept.
Including General Motors. But when GM's EV1 program ran out of juice in 1999, there were plenty of cynics who believed the whole billion-dollar exercise was intended to fail. It was supposed to quash the future of the electric car, conspiracy theorists argued.
From 1991-2000, I was vehicle test and development manager for the dedicated team that in 1994 became GM's Advanced Technology Vehicles (ATV) Division. Among other accomplishments, ATV designed and developed the two-seat EV1, the battery-powered S-10 commercial pickup and a number of experimental hybrid cars and alternate-fuel vehicles including the technologically magnificent (but impractical and unaffordable) 80-mpg Precept PNGV sedan.
We didn't fail. You did.
The Truth About GM and Electricity
How serious was GM about electric propulsion? ATV's business plan was to lead technology development and then dominate the market so completely that other automakers would purchase GM technology under license rather than invest billions developing their own. What went wrong?
Well, a lithium-polymer battery that was supposed to provide safe, reliable power with the same range as a gasoline power plant in a small, light and affordable package just never happened. The original 1,175-pound lead-acid (PbA) battery pack held the energy equivalent of just a half-gallon of gas, good for a 50-70-mile range. The optional nickel-metal hydride (NiMH) pack held twice that in a package equally big and heavy and substantially more expensive.
Still, we made the cars and offered the two-seat EV1 for lease through customer-friendly Saturn dealers in California and Arizona, where year-round temperatures are warm enough to optimize range and local utilities agreed to cooperate. People liked the idea, but the car didn't really have enough range or utility for anything but light shopping or commuting. And with gasoline cheap and plentiful at the time, we soon learned that there wasn't much market for it. We built about 500 '97 models and another 500 '99s (there were no '98s), some with optional NiMH packs, but the dealers managed to lease only about 800 of them in that three-year period.
In truth, GM cared about electricity, but no one else really did. Conspiracy theorists might complain that GM had an evil agenda, but they'd be better off either taking a short course in high school economics about supply and demand or looking for flying saucers in Roswell, New Mexico.
The Future Is Electrifying, Finally
Here is why the 2011 Chevy Volt is different from the GM EV1: The times are different. Smarting from the expensive failure of the EV1, GM passed on hybrid electric vehicles to invest instead in the long-term promise of hydrogen fuel cells. And it's had to watch Toyota profitably establish leadership in green technology with hybrids now that the cost of fuel (and not clean air, really) dominates the debate about electric vehicles. GM desperately yearns to reestablish its long-lost reputation for technology leadership and is determined to invest whatever it takes to do it.
The Chevy Volt is more than a flying car; it's a rocket to the moon, GM's own NASA-style program to reinvent automotive technology and thus assure the triumph of truth, justice and the American Way. And that's why the Chevy Volt has been on the cover of every publication in the country for the last 18 months. This is not about cars. It's about America, dammit. Times are tough, and we're all tired of people in other countries laughing at us.
And GM's "E-Flex" concept looks like a winner. This concept for a plug-in electric vehicle with a range-extender concept is hugely different from battery-powered EVs or gas-electric parallel hybrids. For most people on most days, 40 miles of battery range can get them there and back without ever starting the engine or burning a drop of fuel. The Chevy Volt's lithium-ion batteries can deliver this. Meanwhile, the Volt powertrain with its onboard electrical generator to recharge the battery also eliminates "range anxiety," the gnawing fear of running out of volts and being stranded. And this onboard generator can be driven by whatever makes the most economic and environmental sense — an ultra-efficient gas, diesel or alternative-fuel engine, and maybe someday a zero-emissions fuel cell.
When you figure that a 30-mpg car has running costs of 13 cents per mile while a plug-in vehicle like the 2011 Chevy Volt could have costs of 2 cents per mile, you can see that there's also more than intellectual satisfaction to be had from this clean-and-green E-Flex technology.
The View From the Launch Pad
GM's ill-fated EV1 effort was in fact a major success in terms of what was learned about electric propulsion, powertrain controls and vehicle efficiency, and many of the same motivated people who worked on that program are working long, hard hours on this one.
Frank Weber is global vehicle line executive for the Volt and future E-Flex vehicles. "There is some skepticism about this journey we have in front of us and the commitment for 2010," he says. "But look at what has happened since August 2007. We had battery packs last October, successfully tested them and put them into vehicles in February. All those packs are behaving in the vehicles like the simulations said they should. Another very significant step is that production-intent components — batteries, powertrain, underbody and other components — will be installed into vehicles and ready for testing [by the beginning of September].
Can the program make its launch date of November 2010, when the 2011 Chevrolet Volt is meant to be in showrooms? Andrew Farah, who was battery and propulsion team leader on the EV1, is now the chief engineer of the Volt, and he says without hesitation, "I don't see any fundamental problem standing in our way. We have plenty of challenges, the same kinds you have bringing any vehicle to market — packaging, durability, crash issues — and having a big battery complicates those things a bit. We have a lot of electrical and propulsion system development to do, but it's development; there's a big difference between invention and development."
What It's All About
Denise Gray is director of energy storage systems for GM hybrids. "Because it is all about the battery," she says, "one of our philosophies is to get as many packs into our laboratory as we can as fast as we can to work with them. We're looking at a couple of different proposals, we've gotten three versions of battery systems so far, and each has become more refined."
Since the production-intent Volt was unveiled September 16, we've learned that its battery pack will contain 220 lithium-ion cells, each carrying more than a volt of energy. "We have a very good fundamental design," Gray adds. "So what will require the most attention will be manufacturing at high quality. We have to ensure that the cells are designed and manufactured with perfection so we can get the performance and durability we need."
Looking Good
Bob Boniface did the early work on the 2010 Camaro's proportions and design language while in GM's advanced studio and now he's directing the Chevy Volt design. Its drag coefficient (Cd) is now 120 counts lower than that of the showcar, which is critically important to battery range. "Short of EV1, Volt is the most aerodynamically efficient production car GM has ever done," Boniface asserts.
Other challenges in the design? "It's a big battery, in the shape of a T," Boniface says, "and the majority of it goes down the centerline; the rest is sideways under the rear seat. We needed to make sure we didn't displace the occupants or take away storage or convenience features, and we wanted to keep the roof low. Making all that battery invisible to the occupants was tough.
"The showcar had a lot more 'dash-to-axle' — the front axle was very far forward — and a very long hood. The production car has a lot of plan view [curvature as viewed from above] in front for aero, and the executions of surfaces and details are more sophisticated. But it has a great stance, large wheels, a nice wide track and a lot of wedge."
Inside are two LCD screens — one for instrumentation, another for infotainment. The center stack has touch-sensitive buttons, like an iPod. Boniface tells us, "The showcar had elements on the door panels that we called 'shell features,' so there's a version of that in this car, with elements that wrap out of the doors to the centerline. There are very innovative graphic and textural elements in the interior, and we'll have something on the screen and audio cues to let the driver know the car is active and ready to go, like when you boot up your laptop."
Go for Lift-off
The 2011 Chevy Volt was revealed in its final form as part of GM's September 16 Centennial celebration. GM is putting its money on the line with this one, counting on a dramatic reduction in its obligation to employee pension funds after 2010 to free up more money to work with as it expands the technology into other vehicles. Troy Clarke, the president of General Motors North America, told the Brookings Institution last spring, "We're moving from a company that for 100 years has been based on mechanically driven automobiles to one that will eventually be based on electricity."
There's also more than bragging rights involved, because GM anticipates that the number of vehicles in the world will grow from 820 million today to a billion in 2020, expanding the worldwide automotive owner-body from 12 percent of the population to 15 percent. Being first to the clean-air, fuel-efficient future could clearly be profitable.
Just as with the EV1, the 2011 Chevrolet Volt's success will depend on its battery performance and the car's price/value equation. And there's a lot riding on all this. As GM's Clarke told us recently, "I think the Volt will make back its investment — maybe not in the first generation but for sure in the second. Volt is probably the most powerful brand name in the GM portfolio today. Everybody who's heard of the Volt can give you a description of what they think it is."
Just as with the GM EV1, the Chevrolet Volt's biggest challenge is to be just as good as everybody expects it to be.
Sure, it's a cool idea to have an electric vehicle (EV) that has the ability to drive 40 miles on power from a lithium-ion battery pack, recharge its batteries on the go from a small gasoline engine for a total cruising range of 400 miles, and then plug into the electric power grid at night for a complete recharge. But it sounds like another one of GM's pronouncements of its intention to remake the American industrial landscape, something it does with comical frequency. Remember the 1960 Chevy Corvair, 1971 Chevy Vega, 1976 Chevy Chevette, 1985 Chevy Nova and 1990 Saturn S1?
And what has come of it all? Did you see any flying cars on the way to work today?
It makes you wonder about the chances that GM will come through with the 2011 Chevy Volt with its E-Flex electric powertrain. After all, haven't we been through this before with the 1996 GM EV1?
It's a question I've asked myself, since I was there inside General Motors, working on the GM EV1.
Who Killed the Electric Car? You Did
Most people view the GM EV1 as a dismal failure. Viewed from strictly a marketing perspective, they are right.
The auto industry's first (and so far only) modern, purpose-built, battery-powered electric car for the wide-open American highway was an absolute technology triumph, the most practical, energy-efficient four-wheeled vehicle ever to roll down the road. Even so, fewer than 1,000 EV1s were built between 1996 and 1999. Barely 800 were leased to customers before GM pulled the car's (ahem) plug.
The EV1 had its beginnings with the bullet-shaped Impact EV concept car, unveiled at the 1990 Los Angeles Auto Show, followed by a surprise announcement that April by then-GM Chairman Roger Smith, a sound technological partnership (Hughes Electronics) and majestic promises of the future. (Sounds just like the Chevy Volt, doesn't it?) Five months later, California announced a decision to mandate sales of battery EVs, ready or not, for the seven top-selling automakers. If GM can do it, they figured, we'll make everyone do it. Turned out nobody could do it. Ultimately, no car company was able to market battery EVs in volume at a price most people would pay or with a range most would accept.
Including General Motors. But when GM's EV1 program ran out of juice in 1999, there were plenty of cynics who believed the whole billion-dollar exercise was intended to fail. It was supposed to quash the future of the electric car, conspiracy theorists argued.
From 1991-2000, I was vehicle test and development manager for the dedicated team that in 1994 became GM's Advanced Technology Vehicles (ATV) Division. Among other accomplishments, ATV designed and developed the two-seat EV1, the battery-powered S-10 commercial pickup and a number of experimental hybrid cars and alternate-fuel vehicles including the technologically magnificent (but impractical and unaffordable) 80-mpg Precept PNGV sedan.
We didn't fail. You did.
The Truth About GM and Electricity
How serious was GM about electric propulsion? ATV's business plan was to lead technology development and then dominate the market so completely that other automakers would purchase GM technology under license rather than invest billions developing their own. What went wrong?
Well, a lithium-polymer battery that was supposed to provide safe, reliable power with the same range as a gasoline power plant in a small, light and affordable package just never happened. The original 1,175-pound lead-acid (PbA) battery pack held the energy equivalent of just a half-gallon of gas, good for a 50-70-mile range. The optional nickel-metal hydride (NiMH) pack held twice that in a package equally big and heavy and substantially more expensive.
Still, we made the cars and offered the two-seat EV1 for lease through customer-friendly Saturn dealers in California and Arizona, where year-round temperatures are warm enough to optimize range and local utilities agreed to cooperate. People liked the idea, but the car didn't really have enough range or utility for anything but light shopping or commuting. And with gasoline cheap and plentiful at the time, we soon learned that there wasn't much market for it. We built about 500 '97 models and another 500 '99s (there were no '98s), some with optional NiMH packs, but the dealers managed to lease only about 800 of them in that three-year period.
In truth, GM cared about electricity, but no one else really did. Conspiracy theorists might complain that GM had an evil agenda, but they'd be better off either taking a short course in high school economics about supply and demand or looking for flying saucers in Roswell, New Mexico.
The Future Is Electrifying, Finally
Here is why the 2011 Chevy Volt is different from the GM EV1: The times are different. Smarting from the expensive failure of the EV1, GM passed on hybrid electric vehicles to invest instead in the long-term promise of hydrogen fuel cells. And it's had to watch Toyota profitably establish leadership in green technology with hybrids now that the cost of fuel (and not clean air, really) dominates the debate about electric vehicles. GM desperately yearns to reestablish its long-lost reputation for technology leadership and is determined to invest whatever it takes to do it.
The Chevy Volt is more than a flying car; it's a rocket to the moon, GM's own NASA-style program to reinvent automotive technology and thus assure the triumph of truth, justice and the American Way. And that's why the Chevy Volt has been on the cover of every publication in the country for the last 18 months. This is not about cars. It's about America, dammit. Times are tough, and we're all tired of people in other countries laughing at us.
And GM's "E-Flex" concept looks like a winner. This concept for a plug-in electric vehicle with a range-extender concept is hugely different from battery-powered EVs or gas-electric parallel hybrids. For most people on most days, 40 miles of battery range can get them there and back without ever starting the engine or burning a drop of fuel. The Chevy Volt's lithium-ion batteries can deliver this. Meanwhile, the Volt powertrain with its onboard electrical generator to recharge the battery also eliminates "range anxiety," the gnawing fear of running out of volts and being stranded. And this onboard generator can be driven by whatever makes the most economic and environmental sense — an ultra-efficient gas, diesel or alternative-fuel engine, and maybe someday a zero-emissions fuel cell.
When you figure that a 30-mpg car has running costs of 13 cents per mile while a plug-in vehicle like the 2011 Chevy Volt could have costs of 2 cents per mile, you can see that there's also more than intellectual satisfaction to be had from this clean-and-green E-Flex technology.
The View From the Launch Pad
GM's ill-fated EV1 effort was in fact a major success in terms of what was learned about electric propulsion, powertrain controls and vehicle efficiency, and many of the same motivated people who worked on that program are working long, hard hours on this one.
Frank Weber is global vehicle line executive for the Volt and future E-Flex vehicles. "There is some skepticism about this journey we have in front of us and the commitment for 2010," he says. "But look at what has happened since August 2007. We had battery packs last October, successfully tested them and put them into vehicles in February. All those packs are behaving in the vehicles like the simulations said they should. Another very significant step is that production-intent components — batteries, powertrain, underbody and other components — will be installed into vehicles and ready for testing [by the beginning of September].
Can the program make its launch date of November 2010, when the 2011 Chevrolet Volt is meant to be in showrooms? Andrew Farah, who was battery and propulsion team leader on the EV1, is now the chief engineer of the Volt, and he says without hesitation, "I don't see any fundamental problem standing in our way. We have plenty of challenges, the same kinds you have bringing any vehicle to market — packaging, durability, crash issues — and having a big battery complicates those things a bit. We have a lot of electrical and propulsion system development to do, but it's development; there's a big difference between invention and development."
What It's All About
Denise Gray is director of energy storage systems for GM hybrids. "Because it is all about the battery," she says, "one of our philosophies is to get as many packs into our laboratory as we can as fast as we can to work with them. We're looking at a couple of different proposals, we've gotten three versions of battery systems so far, and each has become more refined."
Since the production-intent Volt was unveiled September 16, we've learned that its battery pack will contain 220 lithium-ion cells, each carrying more than a volt of energy. "We have a very good fundamental design," Gray adds. "So what will require the most attention will be manufacturing at high quality. We have to ensure that the cells are designed and manufactured with perfection so we can get the performance and durability we need."
Looking Good
Bob Boniface did the early work on the 2010 Camaro's proportions and design language while in GM's advanced studio and now he's directing the Chevy Volt design. Its drag coefficient (Cd) is now 120 counts lower than that of the showcar, which is critically important to battery range. "Short of EV1, Volt is the most aerodynamically efficient production car GM has ever done," Boniface asserts.
Other challenges in the design? "It's a big battery, in the shape of a T," Boniface says, "and the majority of it goes down the centerline; the rest is sideways under the rear seat. We needed to make sure we didn't displace the occupants or take away storage or convenience features, and we wanted to keep the roof low. Making all that battery invisible to the occupants was tough.
"The showcar had a lot more 'dash-to-axle' — the front axle was very far forward — and a very long hood. The production car has a lot of plan view [curvature as viewed from above] in front for aero, and the executions of surfaces and details are more sophisticated. But it has a great stance, large wheels, a nice wide track and a lot of wedge."
Inside are two LCD screens — one for instrumentation, another for infotainment. The center stack has touch-sensitive buttons, like an iPod. Boniface tells us, "The showcar had elements on the door panels that we called 'shell features,' so there's a version of that in this car, with elements that wrap out of the doors to the centerline. There are very innovative graphic and textural elements in the interior, and we'll have something on the screen and audio cues to let the driver know the car is active and ready to go, like when you boot up your laptop."
Go for Lift-off
The 2011 Chevy Volt was revealed in its final form as part of GM's September 16 Centennial celebration. GM is putting its money on the line with this one, counting on a dramatic reduction in its obligation to employee pension funds after 2010 to free up more money to work with as it expands the technology into other vehicles. Troy Clarke, the president of General Motors North America, told the Brookings Institution last spring, "We're moving from a company that for 100 years has been based on mechanically driven automobiles to one that will eventually be based on electricity."
There's also more than bragging rights involved, because GM anticipates that the number of vehicles in the world will grow from 820 million today to a billion in 2020, expanding the worldwide automotive owner-body from 12 percent of the population to 15 percent. Being first to the clean-air, fuel-efficient future could clearly be profitable.
Just as with the EV1, the 2011 Chevrolet Volt's success will depend on its battery performance and the car's price/value equation. And there's a lot riding on all this. As GM's Clarke told us recently, "I think the Volt will make back its investment — maybe not in the first generation but for sure in the second. Volt is probably the most powerful brand name in the GM portfolio today. Everybody who's heard of the Volt can give you a description of what they think it is."
Just as with the GM EV1, the Chevrolet Volt's biggest challenge is to be just as good as everybody expects it to be.
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