Chevy Volt Concept

[jetsetter]

Chevy Volt

For several months now rumors have been rampant about an electric vehicle that General Motors would unveil at the Detroit Auto Show. That vehicle is now real, in the form of the Chevrolet Volt. The Volt is the first vehicle application of the GM's new E-Flex platform. Volt is a C-Class sized four door sedan roughly the size of a Cobalt.

In spite of the presence of an internal combustion engine, GM does not call this vehicle a hybrid. In fact, they consider it an EV with range extending capability. The engine is a turbocharged, 1.0L three cylinder engine with 71 hp that has no mechanical connection to the wheels. The ICE runs at about 1800 rpm and drives a 53 kW generator that charges the lithium ion battery pack. The engine starts and stops automatically as needed to charge the battery.

The battery pack provides power to a 161 hp (120 kW) electric motor that's connected to the front wheels to provide the motive force. It's the same motor that's used in the fuel cell Equinox. The LiIon battery has a peak output of 136 kW and a total capacity of 16 kWh. The battery can be charged by plugging it in to any standard 110 V outlet and is fully charged in about 6-6.5 hours. There are two plugs, one on each side of the car, to facilitate home charging.

The Volt has a range of about 40 miles on the battery alone which might not seem like much. But, considering that most people drive fewer miles than that per day, it should mean that a lot of drivers will never use a drop of gas on their daily commute. However, when the fuel tank is filled to it's capacity of 12 US gallons of gas, the Volt has a range of 640 miles. In addition, the Volt ICE is fully flex fuel capable and can run on any combination of gasoline or ethanol up to E85. The power-train is sized to achieve 0-60 mph acceleration of about 8.5 seconds.

The styling of the Volt is intended to give aesthetically pleasing proportions, with short overhangs and a sporty look. With the small motor sitting low between the front wheels and ICE sitting above and behind that, there is virtually nothing mechanical extending ahead the wheels. That leaves just the front bumper and radiator sitting there and the body almost shrink wrapped around the cooling system and wheels. The short overhang and front mid-engine layout give the impression of a classical sporty long hood appearance even on a relatively short car.

The roofline of the car is cut low, giving a tiny slit of a windshield, but the innovative door glass treatment helps avoid the sitting in a bathtub feeling of cars like the Chrysler Crossfire or Audi TT. The sides of the Volt have a definite shoulder, flowing out from the base of the windows and the down the sides. The windows themselves are relatively short, but the top part of the outer door skin including the shoulder is glass, allowing for and airy feel and much better visibility. Whether this look is practical for production is debatable, but it sure looks unique. The wheel wells bulge out over the tires which combined with the almost non-existent overhangs gives a powerful, aggressive stance.

The Volt has a lot of nice looking details like the shiny trim panels on the trailing edge of each of the front fenders which open to expose the standard 110V plugs, leaving behind the inductive charging padels of the EV1. The door handles are hidden in the chrome trim strips along the lower edge of the shoulder glass on the doors. Based on the CG images available at the time of writing it looks like there is also glass in the back panel below the tail-lights. Actual evaluation of visibility will have to wait until GM shows us the actual car at the show.

For a customer driving about 40 miles a day or about 15,000 miles a year, compared to a 30 mpg car, the Volt would save about 500 gallons of gasoline per year. If the car is charged every night, the driver should be able to achieve that mileage using virtually no gasoline. That same example would also save 4.4 metric tonnes of CO2 every year from each car. Another example of a driver commuting 60 miles a day would achieve an equivalent mileage of 150 mpg based on the engine running for the last 20 miles in a charge sustaining mode. As the driver's mileage drops down toward that 40 mile threshold, the equivalent mileage rises toward infinity. The ICE/generator combo has enough power to keep the car going when cruising at 70 mph and after the 30 minutes of running, the battery will be completely topped up.

GM's goal was to create an electric car that would not force users to plan their travel around the next charging session, while still providing all the capabilities of a standard four door, standard compact car and produce it in quantities of 100,000+ per year. They seem to have succeeded at the first part of this. Now the big question is when can we buy one? Here things get decidedly murky.

In GM's development process, a program isn't considered a real production intent vehicle until a vehicle line executive is assigned. The Volt has a VLE in the person of Tony Posawatz, so it is intended for showrooms, not just the show circuit. The only thing that isn't quite real at this point is the timing. The hold-up is that darned battery. At this point no car-maker in the world has yet publicly committed to building a car powered by Li-ion batteries in any significant quantities (Tesla has announced plans, but until they actual start delivering soem production roadsters, I'll withhold judgement). Regardless of the claims of battery makers, the technology to build an affordable battery that will last 100,000 miles, with minimal degradation of performance has yet to be demonstrated. GM is looking at a number of potential suppliers, but so far hasn't committed to any. No pricing is available at this point, but the base price is almost certain to be more than a comparable Cobalt or Focus. However, they want to price it so that total operating cost of the vehicle and fuel costs are comparable or less than current cars. Given, the efficiency of such a vehicle that should allow quite a bit of latitude, as long as customers buy into that concept.


The car on show here in Detroit is a runner, and hopefully GM will let AutoblogGreen behind the wheel before too long. GM made sure to emphasize that the Volt and E-Flex are not science fair projects or PR stunts. For the sake of GM and the domestic industry as a whole, they better bring something like this to market sooner rather than later.

http://www.autobloggreen.com/2007/01...s-the-chevy-v/

I think this vehicle could work even without the electric motors and batteries. It does look good. Just fit a regular Ecotec in there and go.

[Wizegui]

They're not fooling anyone. If they replace the Cobalt with that, it will sell.

[Blind_Io]

It's interesting how they kept the "shoulder" of the body line high with the curved glass but maintained the visibility of a traditional design. I like it. The one thing I would change is the back end, it looks like a cat at mating season with it's ass that high in the air. Other than that I like the look.

I would really like to see the interior.

[un-dee]

No, thanks. And all these strange hybrid concepts start to annoy me.

[NAIDANAC A]

Ya the rear end is really wierd. But still a cool car.

[KaJuN]

I take it this car will be for people who want the Camaro but can't afford it?

[Cobol74]

Looks very nice, I like this high waistline American cars seem to be getting these days. Not a fan of hybrids or in this case "sort of" hybrid. I hope that someone cracks this zero emissions motoring some day:

may be this is a step in the right direction,

may be something else will crack the problem.

[RoamingGnome]

The engine is a turbocharged, 1.0L three cylinder engine with 71 hp that has no mechanical connection to the wheels.

This actually sounds like a darn good idea, I'm assuming they could make this "simple" generator rather efficient. I don't subscribe to the outlet-plug-in idea, cause it is simply retarded but this could work nicely.

Styling is not bad at all, yea the rear's kinda funky but then so it the whole car. Looks hella cool thou. Wouldn't mind putting something like this in my driveway.

[SL65]

Wow thats a design mess, IMO. And whats that on the fender?? Its not a vent, its writing I think...

[Spazatao]

"In addition, the Volt ICE is fully flex fuel capable and can run on any combination of gasoline or ethanol up to E85."

Interesting... only now they are finally thinking of flex fuel cars to the US market. Here it has been a reality since 2003, and Chevy was one of the first to make flexfuel engines.

As for the Volt, I like the windows idea. It was a very good solution to keep a solid, modern design with the very high lines on the side and not compromise visibility.

[WheatKing]

North america has had flex fuel vehicles for YEARS.. hell you could get propane vehicles from the factory in the 80's..

Chrysler has had ethanol (e85) compatible vehicles since 98.. pretty much all the 3.3L & 4.7L motors are e85 compatible

http://www.e85fuel.com/e85101/flexfuelvehicles.php

[Blayde]

The Volt has a range of about 40 miles on the battery alone which might not seem like much. But, considering that most people drive fewer miles than that per day, it should mean that a lot of drivers will never use a drop of gas on their daily commute.

I average 30 a day to uni and back, and that's not that far (this island IS tiny you know), so where in the world does 40 miles be a comparative figure. Or do they no realise that it's 40 for a round trip?

[klutch]

Why not a diesel? Better at the lower rpm, with more torque and therefore mor charging capacity, with even better fuel savings.