Chevy Volt: "The Barack Obama Of Automobiles"

The Atlantic:

Last year, while he was working in Germany as an engineer for General Motors, Andrew Farah got a call from a senior engineer in Detroit asking him to come home.

Why?

A car. A special car.

Farah had heard about it, of course. The Chevrolet Volt was the automotive sensation of 2007, a new kind of electric hybrid that GM was proposing to have in showrooms in late 2010. Farah had advocated a similar design years earlier, so he didn't need to be sold on the idea.

Still, he hesitated. GM had called him because of his deep experience with battery-driven electric cars. In the 1990s, he had worked on GM's EV1, an all-electric technological masterpiece that had done so poorly commercially that GM wound up crushing the cars amid a hail of public condemnation. Farah had been fiercely committed to the EV1, and he was not about to relive the disappointment.

Read the whole story: The Atlantic

Comments

[nastyvirus]

I think I'll hold out for the car that's powered by its own atomic structure.

[WIpatriot]

Ah, yes, the "Photon" due out in 2018 for $15K.

[johnnyjust]

The Barack Obama of Autos?

So it looks good. It runs well on the "freeway" (on script).

And it spurts and sputters "off road" (off script).

I agree.

[samandally]

Good one johnny, just got home from work, I need that!

[lechatnoir]

How about this one to be "The Dennis Kucinich Of Automobiles" ?

http://uk.reuters.com/news/video?videoId=84561

[WIpatriot]

Sweeeet.

[SCG]

The John McCain of automoblies.

http://maverickheaven.homestead.com/files/74OrangeGrabberJunk.jpg

[mergina]

That is priceless. Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!

[SCG]

It's a Maverick too, a 74' model.

[seawolf77]

I've been saying this for years. One of the big 3 should cease all internal engine production and switch to electric car production immediately. What have they got to loose. They're going down the tubes faster than you know what anyway.

[mouselion]

You can wait until 2011 to pay $30,000 for an electric car that gets 40 miles to the charge (only green-powered as the source of electricity), and still uses gas -- or wait until next year and buy an air powered car for $18,000.

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2007/05/pressure_for_ch.php

Air pressure car: 1000 miles on one tank of air. No carbon emissions. Air is a free resource.
Hydrogen cell: as water consumption increases, potential for war.
Oil: Already at war over it and is causing an environmental disaster.
Electric: Only as green as your source and hides the carbon emissions from you (or causes a demand for nuclear power plants nobody wants to host).

Air pressure: the future of transportation, a clean environment and peace. Now there's real change for ya'!

[research]

It might be, but it's unproven.

[brighterside]

I'll believe it when I see it. Honestly, I think its what the computer industry call vaporware.

[SShaw490]

I'd think its performance and practical range would be very limited - if it works at all - and whether you use electricity to charge a battery to drive an electric motor to turn the wheels or use electricity to drive a compressor to fill up a tank to push pistons to turn the wheels seems a little academic to me.

[ccpostman]

I think Alternano has been working on the extended nano batteries for the last couple of years.

http://www.altairnano.com/markets_amps.html

I and others are waiting for the Phoenix cars which are powered by these long range batteries.

Does anybody know when they are going to start selling them? I heard they were going to fleet sales first, but I have not heard anything off the web site.
http://www.phoenixmotorcars.com/index.php

[KillTheMessenger]

125 miles on one tank of air, not 1000 miles. Which means you are carrying approx. 20MJ of explosives in a pressure tank around with you. TNT has approx. 4MJ/kg energy content. So that's a mere 5kg (10lbs) worth of TNT, if I am not mistaken. You want it? You can have it. I will stick to my Prius. Not to mention that it needs a special charge station or takes 4 hours to recharge from the electric grid.

[KPinSEA]

I'm looking forward to evaluating a 2011 Volt (no way I'd get something this new, something they're pushing so hard to make release date on, in the first year) and its Japanese competition. A plug-in hybrid with the extended range of gas recharging is definitely the way to go for me.

[escobar]

I hope it works out.
Who wants to bet the thing will be built in a plant in China?

[brighterside]

Why would they? The batteries alone are too heavy to ship to China and all the material for those batteries are here. So betting that it would be built in China is a losing proposition.

[onlyThis]

Um...let me think, let me think...no. I would never buy a GM vehicle. This company's ONLY concern is profits. They do not care about car quality, MPG or resale value. They only want to make as much money as they can by giving us the crappiest and cheapest product they can. Sorry, I will not support that kind of company. I know all companies are in business to make money but sometimes you also do what is right or needed even though it may hurt the bottom line a bit. I give to charity even though I am sometimes strapped for cash myself. If GM had balanced out it's fleet with a few really good high mileage cars I would forgive them their years of big ugly SUV,s but they have to be dragged kicking and screaming to make a decent small car. I bet the volt will be an unreliable pos.In five years you'll have to buy another. Bottom line is GM's business model is outdated and a failure just like it's products.

[philinmedford]

J.D. Power and Associates Initial Quality Study: Top-Rated Cars June 2008

Best Midsize - Chevy Malibu

Amazing isn't it?

[KillTheMessenger]

Initial quality means it works for six weeks, right? After that all bets are off.

[clearthinker2008]

Most businesses only care about profits..you must not even eat.

[OutsourcedAgain]

At the same time GM was whining about the unions and how much money the company was loosing, the big brained, over paid execs were making every mistake they could. I'm not in the auto industry and I could see this coming for the last ten years. Why these "experts" couldn't see this coming is beyond me. Maybe if they tried leaving their ivory towers and living like John Q Public once in a while they'd understand what moves us. That said, all I can say is boo hoo for GM.

Snooze you lose.

[WIpatriot]

10 years?!? How about 3 decades PLUS?

[sculptor]

I have my doubts that the same type of battery that was blowing up laptops will cut it in cars. This is not to say that litium-ion batteries are doomed, it's just to say that the standard technology might just well be. I wish these companies would look at what Altairnano has done with the lithium-ion battery.

[philinmedford]

No, not the same batteries. Many technological improvements have been made, continue to be made....here is one:

http://news-service.stanford.edu/news/2008/january9/nanowire-010908.html

[research]

The Tesla IS made with surplus laptop batteries.

[research]

A123 also has cheap great batteries: 60 Miles, 5K$, 300lbs, 2 cu ft, 800HP, overheat proof.

See my profile for more details on batteries solar and wind.

[sculptor]

By the way, on your profile you seem to ignore thorium cycle reactors. With estimated reserves of 12,000,000 tons throrium is not a short term energy solution.

[jsarets]

It's not the same type of battery. Laptop cells are LiCoO2. The cells competing for the Volt contract are LiMnO2 (CPI/LG) and LiFePO4 (A123/Conti). Both of these chemistries have substantially lower internal resistance and increased power density than laptop cells at the cost of decreased energy density.

In other words, the cells in the Volt can charge and discharge at higher rates without releasing as much heat, making them both safer and more energy-efficient than commodity laptop cells. Furthermore, the large form-factor and high value of a full-power automotive battery pack allows for much more sophisticated thermal management and protection systems than are feasible in a small laptop pack.

[sculptor]

I know that these batteries still heat up when they are charged (which takes hours) and therefore I don't see the safety issue as being adequetly addressed. Altairnano's Li-ion batteries don't heat up when they are charged (they can be recharged to 80% in under ten minuets.) However they have a problem in that they have only 1/2 the energy density of other Li-ion batteries. Note, this problem doesn't seem to have detered Pheonix from claiming that they'll be building a car with a 100 mile range using these batteries.

[ccpostman]

GM had good batteries. The key word is "Had".

I think they sold the new battery design rights to Chevron after the Hummer hit the market.
We will never know now how good they were.

Watch -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FexNUQfC-hw&feature=related

[philinmedford]

You wonder why we are in such a mess? Look at the "top stories" on HuffPost. Number two is an update of the number one - "Lara Logan Sex Scandal: CBS' New Chief Foreign Affairs... " presently they have about a 1000 posts on the subject, this one has less than 150. People don't care about the future of energy, they want to be t i t ilated. Yeah, top stories about a dog vomiting, maria and madonna. Whoopie.

[wadenelson1]

Look! There's Brittney!

[Myshkin57]

"In the 1990s, he had worked on GM's EV1, an all-electric technological masterpiece that had done so poorly commercially that GM wound up crushing the cars amid a hail of public condemnation."

That's inaccurate. The cars were not crushed because of poor commercial performance. They were never even offered for sale, so I can't see how that could be.

[research]

They were leased. The leases were unilaterally canceled and the cars were rounded up and crushed.

Google EV1 Crushed

[Myshkin57]

I know the leases were canceled, but not by the lessees. Watch "Who Killed the Electric Car?" and you'll see the lessees getting pretty upset.

[research]

GM reserved the right to reclaim the leased cars.

[SShaw490]

I'll tell you what's NOT the wave of the future - HuffPo. I'd like to have a dollar for every post I've written that just disappeared. No reason - no bad language, nothing controversial at all, it just never shows up. Others don't show up for hours.

If they want the traffic of a forum, they need an actual forum.

[philinmedford]

One thing to keep in mind is this: They have a new method that they are using and they want your feedback. It is located at the bottom of a thread and also when you are replying to a comment. Look for this:

Trouble with comments? We've released a new system, and we want your feedback.
To report a problem, click here. All comments are moderated; to read the rules click here

[Gusto]

I believe the Volt/Tesla is the way of the future. Have all electric transportation since electricity can be generated in so many ways. I kind of pictured electric cars, trucks, buses and RVs to have a standard type battery packs, like electric drills. The future service stations would have the ability to switch out used power packs with charged ones. The stations could recharge the packs with there own solar, wind, hydro or whatever kind of generation. One would not have to worry about range.
Imagine a car with just 18 moving parts (Tesla), it would be the last car you would need to buy.
If GM can pull off the Volt, that would be just great, put me on the list.

My two cents

Gus

[philinmedford]

I wonder if the Volt will have an accessory solar panel that you can retract then extend when you are parked at work. Heck with plugging it in when you get home. Maybe the roof is solar panel (with a stout clear panel so it doesn't get vandalized) so that when you are driving around during the day your battery is being recharged. Many things to ponder.

[Gusto]

I've read articles about solar power generating paint. Have the car painted to generate it's own energy. That would be slick.

[Zentrails]

If you assume that this administration has blinders on about climate change and its relation to humans, you would be mistaken. This administration is dong what it is doing because they want to make as much profit as possible from global warming. That's the end of the story, profiteering. There is no profit to be made (in this administrations minds) by solving global warming.

[philinmedford]

I think (again IMHO) that if we blame administrations for profit making we are pointing the finger at the wrong animal. It's CORPORATE profits that are the king. I've posted before that when we were sitting in long gas lines in the '70's we were assured that a "manhattan style" project was underway and everything would be solved. Well, administrations (Democrat and Repub) have come and gone and nothing was done.

[wadenelson1]

An acre or two of solar cells might get it recharged in the average 8 hour workday.

[KillTheMessenger]

It does not take an acre. Or two. It takes the size of your garage roof. Maybe twice as much if your garage is small.