How GM is Making Electric Vehicles Relevant
Editor’s Note: Frank Weber is the Global Electric Vehicle Development Executive for General Motors. Here he discusses the Chevy Volt and the future of transportation. This post was written for Gas 2.0 and reposted at the GM FastLane Blog.
A couple weeks ago, I had the opportunity to speak at EVS 24 in Norway about extended-range electric vehicles (E-REVs). Attendees and presenters were some of the brightest minds from around the world working to make electric vehicles an everyday reality, but frankly, I sensed many of those minds think electric vehicle development is better suited to small, entrepreneurial companies, some with little or no automotive experience.
There seems to be in the minds of many some sort of inherent conflict between being a large, traditional automaker and the ability to develop cars of the future.
I couldn’t disagree more with that sentiment, and GM is on a mission to prove it.
- » Want an Electric Car? Sign up with our friends at 1BOG.
- » Get Gas 2.0 by RSS or sign up by email.
Developing electric vehicles is no longer a nice little “green” story; it’s absolutely crucial if we are to alleviate our dependence on petroleum. Electric vehicles aren’t simply for niche markets; they are the future of a sustainable global automotive industry.
There are nearly 1 billion vehicles using petroleum on the road today. If we are going to make a difference in reducing our dependence on petroleum, GM and other automakers must offer large volume production solutions. Hand-built vehicles may capture the imagination of some, but we need millions of cars to truly address this global issue.
At GM, we have a level of product research, testing and development as well as a supplier network that is unmatched. When you consider the very real distribution, volume and quality issues some of the smaller start-ups have experienced, it’s hard for me to see how they are better equipped than us to deliver the volumes necessary for real change.
But the real key to making electric vehicles a success is to make them relevant for consumers.
Customers expect more out of their vehicles than ever before, so a relevant EV must be capable of being your primary vehicle. Although it would be nice to have a commuter car for the daily drive to work, a family hauler for recreational activities and a roadster to go cruising whenever the urge strikes, very few people have their own fleet of purpose-built vehicles – nor should they for environmental reasons!
We realize that some people can get by with just one of these choices, but we’d rather you didn’t have to settle.
Continue reading and see gallery on Page 2:
Jack Johnston: Although it would be nice to imagine a future of hydrogen cars, I just can’t see it happening. For one thing, the fuel cells are built using platinum, which is incredibly expensive. Did you happen to notice you could not buy a Honda Clarity? There is good reason for that, because Honda would have to charge you a million dollars and still likely not make a profit. Instead, you can only lease them.
Secondly, the infrastructure is not in place to handle hydrogen cars. The domestic oil companies have built 180,000 gas stations in the US alone, is it reasonable to expect they will convert them all to hydrogen? The answer is no, since the cost is prohibitive, not to mention hydrogen is a competitor to oil. So who will front the cost?
On the other hand, the Volt is an evolution to the EV1, whose greatest Achilles Heel was the lack of alternative fuel source. What do you do if you drove it too far away from home, too far away from its recharger? In a word, you were screwed. But the Volt does give you an option to make use of the existing gasoline infrastructure, and ALSO fill up at home. That fact alone (eliminate dependency on finding a hydrogen station) is what gives the Volt a huge plus over any hydrogen vehicle. It will be BluRay vs HD-DVD all over again, and just like HD-DVD which didn’t have the key studios backing it, hydrogen just doesn’t have the infrastructure.
Bruce.
Detroit has failed. GM has failed. GM doesn’t give a fig about electric cars or the environment or anything except for their bank accounts. They are only making the Volt because they have to, not because they want to. I would much rather see a company that actually WANTS to make electric cars succeed, like Tesla. A company that isn’t just doing it because lawmakers or the economy are forcing them. Let GM die. All their good workers can be put to better use at other companies…
The problem you have in believing is GM already developed an electric car 10 years ago that was better than anything driving today. Their entire business model is a lie. The foreign market is way ahead of GM The US gave away the TV market and are now giving away the Auto market. I have a 10 year old Camery that runs great. But holding off buying a new car until a better come across that offers at least 50MPG or electric at 300 miles per charge. I’ walking more and riding my bike
@PJ Does the motive really matter?
With EREV like GM’s Volt, it would make an ideal car to have. It handles 80% of my trips which are commuting needs in pure electric mode. The occasional long trip, I should be able to use the Volt over snowy terrains or the hot desert, at an excellent 50 mpg and higher depending on the distance and state of charge, without having to stop and recharge if the trip goes beyond 40 miles. This would eliminate my need for renting or buying another car for the occassional long trip.
The cool thing about EREV is that you are given a choice to switch between charging in an outlet or on-board charging via gasoline, or mixed mode, depending upon the price of electricity or gasoline. Thus you can make a habit of really going pure electric with an assurance that you can go long range on those emergency long trips if needed be. And you won’t have dead batteries. The state of charge management prevents deep discharge and recharge cycling prolonging the battery pack.
The onboard generator can be easily replaced like those of much better rotary engines such as those with very low emissions and a lot lighter, designed to operate efficiently at constant RPM for recharging. These onboard generators can even be fuel cells if such technology would ever pan out. Moreover, in case of emergencies, we can use these onboard generators to provide real electricity in case the grid fails for other electric applications in more remote places, as you are carrying a generator with you. Generator designs are more easily optimized than a regular car internal combustion engines.
With pure EV, you only have an option to recharge via electric utilities. The batteries and quick charge infrastructure are not there yet to match that of the current ICE vehicles. The Tesla for example, while a nice sporty car, is confined to the electric utility charging with a limited range of 220 miles per full charge and then an agonizing 3.5 hour recharge using 220 Volt line to go on. With EREV like the Volt, you get at least 40 miles on pure electric plus 260 miles on generator gasoline, and then just fill up within 5 minutes to continue on your long trips.
If you used a Tesla on a one way trip from San Francisco to San Diego at about 75 mph, your total drive time would be 6.68 hours, and then you would need to recharge twice, adding whopping time of 7 hours if you can find a 220 volt outlet on your one-way trip.
If you used an EREV like the Volt, the total time of one way trip would be 6.8 hours, with only one 5-minute gasoline refill. GM-Volt would be ahead of Tesla by 7 hours, unless PBB has built an infrastructure for quick change battery for Tesla, but that isn’t happening anytime soon.
An EREV would be the perfect interim solution while we await for the 5-minute quick recharge high energy density batteries. Because 80% of our trips are within 40 miles, the EREV is THE ONLY type of practical vehicle that will dramatically reduce in the fastest time of mass adoption, our non-point source emissions and pollutions, while significantly reducing our oil consumption.
A small point: zero to 60 in 9 seconds is considered slow in today’s market, particularly when you try to compare it to current V6’s. Most V6 powered family sedans (Accord, Camry, Malibu, Fusion, Altima) will hit 60 from a standing-start in the mid-6 to mid-7 second range. Even the 4-cylinder variants hit 60 in the 8-second range. The Jetta TDI, with its low-RPM and flat torque curve, would demolish the Volt in a straight-line contest, and still get crazy-big mileage.
The other issue in this performance comparison is that none of the target cars in the Volt’s general segment have V6’s. This is sized to go up against the Prius and Insight directly, and to lure Civic, Corolla and Mazda3 buyers. None of those have a 6 available, and all will run 0-60 in 8s or better.
Leaving performance aside, the issue I see for the Volt is its price: it’s priced higher than the Accord/Camry family sedan segment, but only offers Prius/Insight/Civic/Corolla space and utility (not a bad thing, just not the same). Even at $4/gal gas, it will take a very long time to make up the price difference (and the extra cost on your home power bill) vs. the savings in gas. Yes, for some this is more than about economics, but for the majority of car buyers, its about dollars on the bottom line.
The volt is a steaming pile of crap. I would not take a volt if you GAVE it to me except maybe to strip it for parts.
Let me get this straight. Using OLD battery tech from 10 years ago they made the EV1 which could go 120-160 miles on a charge 110 if you abused it.
Toyota use the SAME old battery tech to make an otherwise gas stock converted to electric RAV4EV go 80-110 miles on a charge (some of those are STILL on the road today with over 150,000 miles on them and ZERO loss of capacity in the batteries so far)
all this was done over 10 years ago.
NOW they make a crazy expensive VOLT and just by coincidence it only has a range about equal to that of your average $10,000 Lead Acid car battery powered home conversion electric car (40 miles)
and you guys think this is both a coincidence and a good thing?
Have Obama and Congress REVOKE the E95 NIMH patent that GM intentionally sold to Texaco/Chevron (who off course REFUSES to license the patent who would have guessed)
Mandate that GM build a battery factory with ovonics HERE in the US.
Do that and Here is how you can SAVE both our economy and our environment at least put one hell of a dent into it.
Here is what I want.
100mile range 4 person Aluminum and Plastic Direct Drive single centrally mounted motor NIMH Powered Battery Electric Car.
Amenities? NONE just A/C and HEAT. that’s it nothing else.
No fancy computers. No fancy regenerative braking if it adds to much to the cost.
I want a STUPID SIMPLE DUMB electric car
No stinking hub motors. No special multi motors no gps no how am I driving special computers.
Think Econobox.
You can do that for $15,000 full retail.
at that price the car is FREE for many american’s since for many of us we ALREADY SPEND MORE a month in gas than the monthly payment on such a car.
I spend $3500 a year in gasoline.
I actually figured it could be done for $13,000 but I added an extra $2k cushion because the aluminum frame is required.
Here is how I got that number. Go verify it for yourself and you will see unlike GM and the other auto makers I am NOT full of shit on this.
Battery Pack.
QUOTED PRICE right from the mouths of GM and Ovonics (the creators of the battery pack)
$4500 full retail price. This battery is good for at least 250,000 miles. thats 22 years for the average american. Owe and thats not dead thats to 80% capacity. that means if you got 100 miles today in 250,000 miles it might only hold enough juice to go 80 miles. Probably more based on real world data from ON ROAD e95’s still driving around today.
The Motor? about $2,000 the Controller about $2,000 the charger about $500.
these are actual prices. you can BUY these components for around those prices RIGHT NOW today. Oh and to sweeten it even further those prices are for COTTAGE INDUSTRY hobby grade niche small run productions. Imagine how much cheaper they could be when SERIOUSLY mass produced!
so with the battery we are at $9000 so far. All we have left is the car.
KIA was selling a simple gasoline car for $8,000 so I KNOW they can do an $8,000 gasoline powered car. (even today you can buy $9,000 brand new cars from kia and toyota and probably a few others)
now take the ENTIRE engine and transmission and throw it away. There goes 95% of all your moving parts (ie the stuff that tends to break and fail and cost lots of money to fix)
Oh and get rid of the gas tank and its associated gear. The entire exhaust system. Gone.
The ENTIRE emissions and pollution systems ALL GONE
No O2 sensors No smog sensors No mufflers or catalytic converters No ECU’s computers tranny computers pollution computers NONE of that. All of that goes away. That EASILY gets rid of MORE than half of the expense of the car.
BUT lets be fair here and pad in some more profit so figure $4000 for the car.
$13,000 FULL RETAIL for a barebones simple get it on the road into consumer hands 100+mile range 4 person electric car.
NOW add in another $2k for an aluminum frame and plastic body.
Why? well its lighter which is why they designed the EV1 that way. IE more range from the battery.
there is another bonus which GM really hates.
Aluminum and Plastic are basically rust and corrosion proof. They just don’t rust or corrode.
Imagine that. You now have a $15,000 car that will last FAR FAR longer than you will.
It won’t Rust
It won’t Corrode
It pretty much won’t ever break down.
It pretty much will be maintenance free.
It will use ZERO gas.
The power it uses from the grid is TINY compared to the pollution saved
and in fact might be NET GAIN since Estimates say that our CURRENT gasoline infrastructure uses more GRID POWER than the CARS IT FUELS if they were electric. IE the net load on the grid will go DOWN on switching to electric cars NOT UP.
Now lets look at more advantages.
They are cleaner longer lasting.
They are faster. They are more powerful
they are more consistant.
They are quiet.
There is NO DOWNSIDE in reality to electric cars.
What happens when I want to go more than 100 miles.
well thats actually pretty easy.
YOU DRIVE THE GAS CAR YOU HAVE NOW
duh
if you can only have 1 car RENT ONE. the rental fee will be far far smaller over the period of a year than the amount of money you SAVE not having to buy gas every again for your daily grind.
I assure you employers will GLADLY install charging outlets for there employers. My employer has already stated he will have an outlet installed for me within a WEEK if I ever manage to get an electric car. (he subsidizes my gas the few DOLLARS a month it would cost him (literally just a few dollars) in electricity far outshines the FUEL he buys now.
and this even ignores adding a solar roof etc.. to your home and what not.
They simply DO NOT WANT electric cars. all those benefits I listed above means LESS PROFIT for them and they hate that.
thats why killing the electric car was not enough for GM.
that is why they had to sell the patent to Texaco/Chevron to make sure no one else could make them affordable.
you see lithium might have better power density than NIMH (and it does) but it has a shorter life span is less efficient and COSTS a shit ton more.
100miles is MORE than enough for 95% of all my driving every year and before you say well you don’t drive much.
My work commute 6 times a wee is 54 miles ONE WAY and I rack up 40,000 miles a year.
I would trade my $3500 gas bill for the $300 electric bill increase (FOR THE YEAR) in a heart beat.
so SCREW GM.
I want them to rot in hell.
I like the idea of the Volt, but the price tag of about $40k is unrealistic. A Prius is also unrealistic for many people when they can get a Corolla for $6k less. Would you buy a $40k Prius? OK you can plug the Volt in, but most people can’t afford it.
It would be interesting to see what an electric-only version of the Volt would cost.
A stripped-down version (think Tata or even the old Bug) would be the way to go to get mass appeal. This car would be for short commutes and around town. It has to go on the highway. Top speed 75mph, seats 4.
Make it like this:
1. Ditch your unsustainable unions.
2. Start with something like a Tata Nano (with air bags), or a Yaris. Bells and whistles like air conditioning and electric windows are extra!
3. Make it electric only. It will be much easier and cheaper to make.
4. Squeeze out extra costs through component integration.
5. Make several models with different ranges like 20,35,50,100 miles.
6. DON’T put 10-year batteries in it yet! Better batteries are coming. Save the money! You might be able to use batteries like the Firefly Oasis foam-carbon/lead acid for the low-end.
7. Sell for dirt cheap, starting under $12k.
8. You can make a car with knobs and door handles that don’t fall off, right?
Now you have a car for the masses. They might need a second car for longer distances, but most families have 2 cars anyway. The range issue will go away over time as better batteries become available and more charging infrastructure is built.
what took so long?
While I like the volt, I do not see it boosting GM into the lead here. GM is too slow to new ideas and to what the people want. GM thought everyone wanted huge gas guzzlers. Now they think everyone wants an EV that is perfect from the start. Ford didn’t make the Taurus as its first model. Range would be great but not nearly as important as cheap and freeing from gas.
Most importantly, there are several EV companies out there with a head start. While GM has muscle to push the start-ups around, I don’t see how it can compete with a 250mi range, 80mph, 5min charge car from Zenn. Zenn’s only weakness is road trips; what happens at 251mi? Sure 5min charge is nice (at home), but when will the gas stations be getting charge stations?
GM needs to think outside the box for once. The “little engine” it uses is almost the same size as the one in my car. It is not little. GM thinks there can only be one engine and thus that engine has to have a certain amount of power at a loss of efficiency. Not so: dump the inefficient, heavy transmission on all vehicles. Next, make the most efficient small engine that can be made (I bet it’s a one cylinder or a two cylinder diesel hemi). If one engine is not enough to power the car, add another. The engine(s) power the batteries that transfer said power to the motors. Now we have an EV that can be trusted on road trips too.
If Niel Young can get 100mpg in a steel monster I bet we can do better.