We've been flagging the fact that the sexy (to some) prototype electric – gas plug-in hybrid Chevrolet Volt failed its wind tunnel test by a mile. In other words, it will NOT look like the chopped roof show car still trotted-out at auto shows and featured heavily in GM's ads. (TTAC ME Frank Williams is convinced it'll look like a squished Malibu.) The Detroit News reports that "Larry Burns, GM's vice president for research and development, said that aspect of the vehicle's development is officially complete. But a group of reporters and analysts from around the country who will converge in Warren today won't likely get to actually see the car's design, even though they're in town for the latest news on GM's ambitious attempt to build an electrically driven car for the masses." Go on, give us a clue… "Designing the Volt was especially tricky because GM needed to fit a battery pack 'the size of a linebacker' into a car essentially the size of a Chevrolet Cobalt, with enough room for four passengers to fit comfortably inside, Burns said." Another one! "The finished Volt will bear a 'clear family resemblance' to the sporty vehicle initially shown at last year's Detroit auto show, Burns said. 'But it won't be a twin.'" TTAC will pay $500 for an exclusive first picture of the new Volt.
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Maybe they’ll pull what they’ve done with the Camaro and start showing official “spy pictures” two plus years in advance of the floating launch date.
What’s a wind runnel?
philbailey:
“…failed its wind runnel test by a mile.”
“Tunnel” obviously. Text amended.
I’m glad they are changing its looks. While I have an appreciation for the concept and gasoline-free driving for short trips, the original Volt concept car was (for my taste):
– too square
– too Camaro-ish in the front end (long hood)
– the beveled windows were ridiculous
philbailey
What’s a wind runnel?
That’s where Scooby-Doo tests the aerodynamic upgrades to the Mystery Machine van.
Nah, Scooby Doo would refer to it as a ‘rind runnel,’ I believe.
Maybe this is why the projected price is now 48K
Following the speeded development on the Solstice, the Volt will come to market seriously compromised by weight and usable space in order to fit a pre-ordained envelope described by GM accountants.
GM has a long history of abandoned innovations, largely because the first components to market did not fit the market and they lacked the management stamina to continue the program. Sadly, rather than continual refinement, which has worked superbly with the Corvette, they have left in their path the OHC six of the Tempest, the aluminum V8 of the Olds F85, the entire Corvair (RIP), the Vega, superb packaging in the X-cars (compromised by crap components), the Fiero and the original Saturn. The Solstice/Sky could be a wonderful American Miata had GM simply adapted an aggressive body onto their own version of the Miata platform. Somehow the end result is 400 lbs overweight and the owner has a choice between a trunk and top-down motoring.
We used to call them GM push&pull concept vehicles. They looked good, but you had to push or pull them if you wanted them to move. Didn’t matter, since GM was used to the automotive press forgetting a few days after the autoshow — trouble is, the Volt is not going away, and what was a PR stunt is now becoming a drag.
Production Volt
http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.autoblog.com/media/2008/01/volt-preview.jpg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-JVPLZ22Tg
Where’s my $500?
Plus, styling is important to this car. GM knows it and it’s one of it’s party pieces. The car above looks like the concept only smoothed like an egg which is a good thing.
Robert,
Be careful with that offer. GM needs the cash and may send you the photos you request.
N85523 :
April 3rd, 2008 at 9:45 am
Robert,
Be careful with that offer. GM needs the cash and may send you the photos you request.
Priceless!
At some point, a few weeks ago IMO, GM will be better off if they just stop talking about this thing. Within the next year or so, Toyota or somebody will put something on the market that will embarras GM unless the Volt has been forgotten. Even the most rabid GM nut isn’t about to drop $48k, or whatever it becomes, on a joke like this. That’s a lot of gas or even cab rides.
I heard that wind tunnel testing proved the concept Volt was more aerodynamic going backwards than forwards…
Can some define the word “concept” for all of us?
–noun 1. a general notion or idea; conception.
2. an idea of something formed by mentally combining all its characteristics or particulars; a construct.
3. a directly conceived or intuited object of thought
I remember when GM came out with the Chevy showcar concept vehicle of the ‘Nomad.’ They were just “testing the waters,” and 18 months later, out pops the Dodge Magnum.
Another example was the crewcab mini pickup that I saw at many off road races in the early 90’s. Beautiful semi custom on an S-10 painted red, white and blue for MacPherson Chevy. Couple of years later out pops the Nissan crew cab and then the Toyota.
I can see why they might bait the media.
Frank W
Re the Scooby Doo reference:
Thanks for that.
LMAO
Do you ever feel like we are damned if we do, and if we don’t?
Every viable non-gasoline alternative has suddenly become either incredibly expensive or impractical (although the automakers keep dangling the carrot stick — “just a few more years!”).
Diesel: $4.00 + at least $3,000 extra on the hood + states regulating diesel out of existence.
Ethanol: Driving food prices up. No effort focused upon other sources of it (sugar, algae) or importing from low-cost countries. Too much energy expended in producing it.
Hydrogen: No infrastructure + too much traditional energy required to produce a unit of energy.
Batteries: Cannot get them to work yet (although they sort of worked in the 1890s and 1990s).
Non-Prius Hybrids: Mild efficiency gains + expensive drivetrains
It feels like something odd is going on here….
“a battery pack ‘the size of a linebacker\'”
6’4″ long with a 48″ circumference?
I’d chalk up both the “linebacker” comment and the “it was more aerodynamic backward than forward in the wind tunnel” both to Lutz’s hyperbole.
@detroit1701
It feels like something odd is going on here….
Well, it’s just the slowly dawning realization that all of us alive today have been sucking on the rarest of rare energy teats ever: black oil gushing out of the ground when you poke the earth.
It’s a hyper efficient way of storing energy you wish to use to generate motion. All the hard “effort” needed to convert solar radiation into that gunk was carried out hundreds of millions of years ago, over a timespan you can count in eons, and it’s been made available to us during a few short decades.
Soon it’s gone, and the alternatives aren’t looking too good, as we just can’t wait eons for a maximum efficiency solution as efficient as petroleum. We want our fix right away – which leads to such silly solutions as sticking seeds into the ground, watering and fertilizing them, letting the sun do some work over a growing season, harvesting the crop, letting it ferment, and then extracting the alcohol out of the crop before sluicing the juice into our cars in order to move a few miles.
The problem is not the alternatives per se, but the fact that we have become ridiculously spoiled by petroleum and we therefore think that we can go on using energy like lunatics because an alternative will present itself that’s just as good as the work that flora, fauna, sun, geology and time carried out over eons.
That’s not going to happen.
That’s not going to happen.
Ahem, before you disappear in the pit of despair: There are several things worth noting about the biofuel alternatives promoted so far. Most importantly, this principle held by chemical engineers: to add value to materials when you process it. When you convert FOOD to FUEL, you aren’t adding value, you are destroying it. OTOH, when you convert WASTE to FUEL you are actually adding value.
A few technologies to keep an eye on:
Choren: converting forest waste into diesel
Range Fuels: converting forest waste into mixed alcohols (some ethanol, but the higher alcohols are better fuels)
Velosys Inc: developing modular gasification and liquefication technology, so that these things can be done competetively on small scale.
Note that none of these involves hare-brained fermentation-distillation or GM organisms or any such Bull Sh… Manure.
Now that the obviously unworkable options are falling by the wayside, things are bound to get more interesting.
@Engineer
Not despairing. Humans have proved eminently capable of adapting, though the process itself may at times be more than just uncomfortable.
Fusion is the only real alternative to the practicality of petroleum, but that seems a long way off, if it will ever happen.
What we’ll have to do is spend available fuel in wiser ways, while we’re lining up viable alternatives – and that means modifying our expectations of what automobile use entails. That will happen on its own – as you say, things are bound to get more interesting.
Engineer: I haven’t followed your links but I’m sure those are all technologies with potential.
However, can we logically expect any of them to produce the equivalent of 90 million barrels of oil per day, which is the approximate daily demand world-wide?
I suspect the answer is a resounding no, and even if yes, it won’t be for $100/boe.
The first video tape machines were the size of an office desk but they worked. With improvements the video tape shunk to a few inch rectangle and the video camcorder fits in our hand. Now even tape is going away as we record video on hard drives or even tiny flash cards.
Why doesn’t GM make an electric or hydrogen drive system that works then adapt it to a body and then spend years making in better?
GM is like the hearing aid manufacturers. They are so intent on making the packaging small they forgot to make the hearing aids work.
Where the pics at?
Insiders say the Volt will look a lot like this except for a larger trunk for the linebacker, er, I mean battery pack:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:1915_Detroit_Electric.jpg
Chevy sent out a press release today with info on the Volt’s development. Here are a few excerpts from it about the design and engineering:
Engineers at GM’s battery test facilities have developed a new computer algorithm to accelerate durability testing of the advanced lithium-ion batteries needed to power the Chevrolet Volt for up to 40 miles (64 km) of electric-only driving.
This advanced computer program duplicates real-life vehicle speed and cargo-carrying conditions, and compresses 10 years of comprehensive battery testing into the Volt’s brisk development schedule.
—
Engineering an electric vehicle with a battery roughly 6 feet long (1.8 m) and weighing more than 375 pounds (170 kg) requires innovation.
—
The battery is more than just an energy carrier; it’s a structural component that affects many other aspects of the vehicle.
—
The battery pushed the occupants outboard, or to the sides of the vehicle, so the design team had to get creative with the sections of the roof structure to enable aerodynamics and provide adequate head room. The interior will accommodate a 6-foot 2-inch (99 th percentile) male comfortably in the front and rear seats.
“By having the battery in the middle, we were able to move the occupants apart and give them more space,” said Tim Greig, interior design manager for the Chevrolet Volt. “We also shrink-wrapped the interior, particularly the doors, for comfort and spaciousness. There is no wasted space.
“Being an electric vehicle with a battery down the middle presented unique opportunities to our design team,” he said. “The net result is a very creative and innovative design, appropriate for an electric vehicle.”
—
After extensive aerodynamic testing of the Volt, the vehicle now has a coefficient of drag that is 30 percent lower than the original concept.
I’ve kind of wondered why GM doesn’t release the Volt in two steps. First, as a simple engine-as-generator vehicle that powers the electrical motors directly, like in diesel trains.
This would provide fuel economy at around 50 real-world mpgs, more with a diesel engine.
Second step would be a version with the Li-ion batteries, thus extending mpg to 80-100 mpg equivalent. This would give GM some time to work out the kinks before rushing the Li-ion cars to market.
However, can we logically expect any of them to produce the equivalent of 90 million barrels of oil per day, which is the approximate daily demand world-wide?
Probably not, not in the short term anyway. But it looks like oil prices shot up as spare capacity dropped from 4-5 million bpd to 2 million, or less. So putting another 3-5 million bpd out there might make a big difference, at leasts as far as price goes. Saving the environment would have to wait a few years…
I suspect the answer is a resounding no, and even if yes, it won’t be for $100/boe.
Well, that would be the (nothing works) worst case scenario. Somewhere between 90 million bpd @ $100/boe and 9 million bpd @ $1,000/boe lies a future equilibrium.
How much would you pay to drive? Or, to put it differently, how much would you “need to” drive @ $25/gal?
akitadog: I’ve kind of wondered why GM doesn’t release the Volt in two steps. First, as a simple engine-as-generator vehicle that powers the electrical motors directly, like in diesel trains.
Contrary to popular belief, that’s not as efficient as connecting the engine to the wheels mechanically. That’s what makes the Prius efficient at speed. The only reason big locomotives are diesel-electric is because it’s very difficult and maintenance intensive to have mechanical drive to the wheels. Also, electric drive makes wheel-slip easier to control.
The Germans made diesel-hydraulic drive locomotives, and they were more efficient, but too maintenance-intensive.
The Volt will be less efficient once it’s running on the generator than the equivalent Prius running mechanical drive to the wheels. Stay tuned for a full article comparing the two.
Paul,
I believe that the efficiency of serial hybrids in part comes from the fact that the combustion engine driving the generator is run at its most efficient rpm, at a steady state. ICEs have one speed that is most efficient.
It’s true that a direct mechanical drive has fewer energy losses than a generator system. I guess real world testing will show which system is ultimately more efficient.
As for combustion/hydraulic hybrids, Dana is working on such a system for the military. The idea is to store energy in a hydraulic system that can be used for acceleration as well as recover energy from braking.
The various Kinetic Energy Recovery Systems being proposed for F1 may also eventually have real world relevance.
Why not just develop the technology and apply it to an existing smallish vehicle (Opels anyone) and save all the cosmetic development costs of the Volt?
Added benefit – the system would likely be modular and could be applied to more than one of the GM products.