Volt Birth Watch 118: Wagoner To Drive “Volt” To Hearings
By Edward NiedermeyerDecember 3, 2008 -
The Detroit Free Press is reporting that GM Chairman Rick Wagoner will “drive a prototype Volt wearing the sheet metal of the upcoming Chevrolet Cruze to the Senate committee hearing on the company’s request for $18 billion in emergency loans.” And though they mention that GM will bring a production prototype Volt as well, they make no mention of where Wagoner will depart from on his drive to the capitol. Here’s a guess: somewhere less than 30 miles away. The WSJ now reports that “Mr. Wagoner plans to drive from Detroit in a hybrid Chevrolet Malibu. He will then drive about two miles — from his hotel, to GM’s Washington office, to Capitol Hill — in a test version of the Volt.” So yeah, a little less than 30 miles.
Posted in News Blog | Volt Birth Watch | 21 comments 
Volt Birth Watch 117: GM-Volt.com Swings For The Fences
By Edward NiedermeyerNovember 28, 2008 -
This is what I get for taking a moment to check in at GM-Volt.com. The angry young Volt-lovers are freaking out about the possibility of GM not surviving until the Volt’s launch date, and the prospect of losing their beloved fetish object has folks in a “pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship” kind of mood. The emotional fervor that these people feel towards this nonexistant vehicle is such that their suggestions make handing a blank check to Detroit look like a good idea. The “GM-Volt.com Viability Plan Suggestion,” was put forward by semi-retired NASA engineer Phil Toney, and man is it a doozy. The plan boils down to congress legislating that the entire government fleet (600k+ vehicles) be replaced with, you guessed it, Chevy Volts. But that’s not all…
Posted in News Blog | Volt Birth Watch | 24 comments
Volt Birth Watch 116: Mr Lutz Doesn’t Go To Washington
By Edward NiedermeyerNovember 21, 2008 -
Maximum Bob Lutz was not invited to grovel testify before congress this week, for all of the obvious reasons. So Lutz earned his champagne and cigars the honest way this week: driving cars and blogging about it at Fastlane. Of course, that doesn’t mean Lutz doesn’t have an opinion about the bailout. He’s just strictly forbidden from saying anything besides “I am not going to comment here about any government loans or hearings or GM’s financial situation — just like I wouldn’t engage you in conversation about it if I ran into you in the produce aisle.” Wheh. There goes one recurring nightmare. Besides, as Lutz points out “we have other places online for that conversation, such as gmfactsandfiction.com.” And if that’s not Lutzy enough for you, just wait until he starts talking about the Volt he’s been driving!
Posted in News Blog | Volt Birth Watch | 12 comments
Volt Birth Watch 115: Obama’s Choice
By Edward NiedermeyerNovember 12, 2008 -
Obama is doing what he can to avoid getting overly involved in the unfolding government-industry debacle, but as we noted earlier, that’s a luxury he can only avoid for so long (not that we blame him for trying). Nothing illustrates the tough choices that The One will face in a few short months like Chevy’s moon-shot-mobile: the Volt. Accordingly, Holman W. Jenkins Jr has a column in today’s Wall Street Journal about “the car of the Age of Obama — or at least the Honeymoon of Obama, before the reality principle kicks in.” Jenkins devotes a good deal of the column to rehashing the many, many problems with the whole Volt project, a topic we have covered extensively in our Volt Birth Watch series. His logical conclusion? “It’s a car that will be unsalable without multiple handouts from government.” And he doesn’t go easy on Obama either…
Posted in News Blog | Volt Birth Watch | 9 comments
Volt Birth Watch 114: Does The Engine Recharge the Batteries or Not?
By Robert FaragoOctober 30, 2008 -
Posted in News Blog | Volt Birth Watch | 10 comments
Volt Birth Watch 113: Inside The Volt Battery Development
By Edward NiedermeyerOctober 29, 2008 -
Curious about how things are progressing on the Volt front? Want to know all about how the Volt team “weighed each metric by importance and factored in what Volt vehicle-line executive Tony Posawatz diplomatically calls “qualitative factors,” such as, Are we going to hate working with these guys?” when choosing a battery supplier? Popular Science has a monster piece on the moon shot’s moon shot entitled Power Struggle that will answer all your questions about the Volt’s battery. Except for who’s going to make it and what the actual specs are. You will, however, learn that “It was a different proposition for the EV1,” according to Jon Bereisa, the chief of propulsion on the EV1 and an early instigator for the Chevy Volt. “The battery technology was not there and we knew it, but we believed that we could make up for it by designing a highly efficient car. You could say we nailed it. But we really did not achieve commercial viability.” And one analyst warns “the battery is too big, too expensive, and we are concerned about the life of the battery, the liability risk and the warranty’ — that’s what I hear at every car company I’ve gone to for the last nine years, and now I’m going to go to plug-in hybrids? The batteries are five times bigger, five times more expensive. The liability risk is five times more, or 10 times more.”
Posted in Alternative Energy | Electric Vehicles | News Blog | Volt Birth Watch | 8 comments
Volt Birth Watch 112: GM Car Czar Bob Lutz: “No Stumbling Blocks”
By Robert FaragoOctober 28, 2008 -
What is it with this PR conference speech? Why are we getting GM Car Czar Bob Lutz’ bon mots in les dribs and drabs? In this latest instalment from the spinmeisters ho’ down [via The Detroit Fress Press], Maximum Bob almost breaks his arm, patting himself on the back for being so open with the press about the Volt’s progress– or lack thereof (although he doesn’t say that, obviously). “In the unlikely event that we were going to hit some huge stumbling block, we wanted the world to kind of see how we got to that stumbling block and what that stumbling block was. As it happens, luckily, we don’t seem to be encountering any stumbling blocks.” Wow! Has Bob forgotten that the Volt blew past its original deadline like a Dodge Viper passing a Chevy Aveo? Meanwhile, the car is a raging success. “Volt has received 95% hugely positive coverage and has become really an iconic vehicle, which is strange to say about a vehicle that is not out yet.” Strange, and wonderful, really.
Posted in News Blog | Volt Birth Watch | 12 comments
Volt Birth Watch 111: Water Pumps Done, Still Waiting On A Battery
By Edward NiedermeyerOctober 21, 2008 -
Reuters reports that the wait is over! GM has finally picked a water pump supplier for its plug-in electric - gas hybrid Hail Mary, the Chevy Volt. That’s right, Morrisville, N.C.-based Buehler Motor will supply 12-watt and 50-watt auxiliary water pumps necessary to circulate coolant through the Volt’s subsystems. Not that cooling is something to take lightly, as the Volt’s Lithium-Ion batteries will probably need some fairly extensive thermal management. (Laptop dancing anyone?) Despite publicly acknowledging that the batteries are the Volt’s most crucial component (duh), GM has still not decided on a battery supplier for its E-FLEX platform. The long-running competition between LG Chem and Conti-A123 for a lucrative battery supply contract is still ongoing, despite the intense pressure on GM to meet its 2010 rollout goal. So is GM testing both batteries in vehicle applications, or is it leaving reliability and performance in the hands of in-house development testing? It’s anybodys guess at this point, and every day 2010 gets just a little bit closer. For GM, and its competitors.
Posted in News Blog | Volt Birth Watch | 11 comments
Volt Birth Watch 110: Running On Empty?
By Edward NiedermeyerOctober 20, 2008 -
Car And Driver is bucking its Detroit-loving rep by running a blog post by Steve Siler that is just a little bit critical of Chevy’s Volt EREV. “With the splashy reveal safely behind us, we’ve taken several opportunities to look more critically at the Volt, studying the design, crawling around inside, and interviewing—make that interrogating—many of those responsible for making it a reality, including Bob Lutz, vice president of global product development, and Jon Lauckner, vice president of global project management. They all promise a game-changer certainly for GM, and over time, possibly the world,” writes Siler. “Still,” run-on sentences aside, Siler reckons that “a reality check is in order.” Siler bemoans the clutchless shift from concept styling to production model, saying ”Bye-Bye, Gangsta-Mini. Hello, Sensible Sedan.” “Frankly, we think (the production model) comes across pretty awful in pictures, but we can attest that it appears well proportioned and convincingly cool in person: the details indeed carry the day,” says Siler. The post goes on to call the Volt’s iPod-ripoff interior “a little gimmicky,” and savages the Volt for not offering enough interior room for a dog. No word though on the Volt’s likely astronomical price-tag or government-subsidized production. Still, even the most mild criticism of the Volt is worth noting when it comes from a publication that’s as Detroit-friendly as C/D.
Posted in Electric Vehicles | News Blog | Volt Birth Watch | 7 comments
Volt Birth Watch 109: Another Day, Another Bailout (And Volt Tax Credit)
By Edward NiedermeyerOctober 2, 2008 -
Rest easy America, your government has appropriated $700b of your malaise-busting tax dollars to fix the economy… and fatten up a few pet projects. As Farago reports, auto loans were bundled into the “distressed assets” category, but that’s not the only handout the industry received just days after the passage of its own special bailout. The Detroit News reports that hidden away in the 451 pages of the “Extreme Bailout: Wall Street Edition” is nearly a billion dollars worth of consumer credits to buyers of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs). We’ve always preferred consumer-end stimulus to the production subsidies awarded last week, but apparently Detroit gets to have its pork and eat it too. And like the retooling loans, the tax credit seems tailor-made for Detroit. Under new rules, any PHEV with at least 4kw battery capacity would qualify for $4,168 credit, but (thanks to its serial-hybrid setup) the Volt’s high-capacity battery would make it qualify for the top passenger vehicle tax break of $7,500. Larger credits exist for vehicles over 10k pounds, but all credits expire after 250k qualifying units are built. With $7,500 off the top, state and federal production subsidies, and more hype than a David Blaine special, the Volt had better amount to something… other than a boondoggle.
Posted in Bailout Watch | News Blog | Sales | Volt Birth Watch | 9 comments
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