Channel 4 reports that GM will unveil their Next Big Thing, the Hail Mary upon which The General's hope for an American ressurrection reside, in Paris. Oui, c'est la vérité! "Chevrolet will also make an announcement in Paris [this autumn] over production of the Volt- another car on the Delta platform. The Volt will be seen in Paris in US production specification, with its electric powertrain and auxiliary petrol engine said to be very similar to that of the original concept. GM is planning also to offer a version with a diesel engine, as in last year's Opel Flextreme concept; this may be sold as a Vauxhall or Opel, with the petrol-electric Volt taking the Chevy badge." So, a diesel Volt avec un peu de badge engineering. More importantly, we'll finally get to see the discrepancy between the chopped show car's heavily advertised look and the production-ready hybrid's design. Frank's money is on a new Malibu-esque retread. Can GM Car Czar Bob Lutz sing? Why or why do I love Paris? Because my love is near. [thanks to Dinu Uscatu for the link]
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All cynicism aside (much of it deserved), I really hope GM pulls this off. A whole bunch of cars getting their power off the grid instead of at the fuel pump can only be a good thing.
So yeah, good news. Now I’m wondering if the range has been ahem… “revised” and the price changed to “reflect the economics of bringing to market a game-changing model” (or some other marketing/PR talk that means it’ll be the price of two Prius(es)).
Merci. Quand je suis sous, je parle mieux.
thalter
It is a good thing, but it can only be a great thing when we start producing the electricity needed in nuclear, wind, solar and hydro power plants. As long as coal power plants are still connected to the grid, we’re still polluting like during the Industrial Revolution.
That, and the price of electricity may go up quite a bit if we don’t start creating and using electricity efficiently.
I read some while back in a quite scientific looking study that if people are smart enough to charge their electric cars at night, the US electric grid and power generation/distribution infrastructure can handle up to about 65% of our current transportation needs (no pun intended, sorry).
All bets are off if people simply decide they have to charge their electric cars and plug in hybrids during the day.
Perhaps a ban on charging cars during the daytime would be realistic, but personally I’d hate to see yet more d*** laws.
menno
It would probably be simple to control–we are in the middle of the worst drought of my lifetime, and we just came off watering restrictions a couple weeks ago (in place for 6 or 8 months).
The water company basically said if you exceed a certain amount of usage, the rate per unit would climb. And if you exceed a certain overall usage level, you’d also get hit with a fixed penalty charge. As long as this is based on something rational, like a home’s historical usage PLUS an estimated overnight charge, it would probably be fair.
thalter, in the US coal-fired power plants are nowhere near as dirty as they used to be. The bigger issue with coal is getting it out of the ground. Conventional mining, where you dig tunnels down to the coal seam, is very dangerous and ecologically damaging if the mine waste is not handled properly. Strip mining and mountain top removal is safer, but far more ecologically devastating. Having seen the results of both, I would rather we continue on with oil regardless of whether we import it or not.
But like menno stated, if the cars were recharged at night the grid could handle it. It’s not the difficult to have a timer installed on the circuit that charges the car.
So what is the real agenda to show the new Volt n Paris?
Anything wrong of showng it here?
Hopefully not stating the obvious, but the charging mechanism should shut off automatically when the battery is charged. If it only takes a couple of hours to recharge — then it may not put that big a dent in your utility bills.
Bring on nuclear power and solar plants. Cheap unlimited energy. Has GM figured out a lithium ion disposal plan? Will the consumer have to pay to recycle the battery?
@blowfish – They probably didn’t have a deadline to get it done, so when they got close they said, “hey, Paris is up next!”
dunno. anyone got a better explanation?
Perhaps they should have done it in Italy, birthplace of Alessandro Volta, inventory of the battery and for whom the “volt” unit of measurement is named.
It’s in Paris because Louis Chevrolet was French.
(Sounds good anyway).
If anything, plug in hybrids (like the Volt) will allow us to transport ourselves using “homeland” fuels (coal, wind, nuclear, etc..) and not have to pay the sheiks for liquid Satan anymore.
Why Paris? I think Brendino nailed it. Also, perhaps it makes a good incentive for the developers to meet a deadline. If they get it done, they get to go to Paris on GM’s dime.
For clean coal check out IGCC. And yes the mining has to be done correctly and responsibly. Also CO2 capture is at the pilot plant stage now.
I’m in the energy independence camp. We have a long way to go but we need to get started.
Anyone catch Autoline Detroit over the weekend? They toured Honda’s R&D facility, which had a demo of a home-based hydrogen plant and refueling station, powered by a roof’s worth of solar cells. Looks very interesting, especially providing just plain electricity, instead of hydrogen.
Menno: Perhaps a ban on charging cars during the daytime would be realistic, but personally I’d hate to see yet more d*** laws.
This is a problem with a very simple market solution, which is already operative in many locations. Charge less for electricity at night.
If these things come online and the price of electricity goes up, then simply add solar to your rooftop. At least that way you control the cost of your lifestyle and not Wall Street.
I too really hope GM does this and then doesn’t recall of them for crushing… Yeah, I know – they are selling them, not leasing them.
Seeing that plug in the picture reminds me of the “magic sauce” the Volt really needs. It needs some sort of automatic way to plug in and unplug (at least as an option). Perhaps you install a charging station in your garage that has a plug at a certain fixed height exactly equal to the height of a plug mounted in the front bumper of the car. When you get your car close enough to the station, a sensor detects the presence of the car and uses a robotic arm to plug the power cord into the car’s receptacle. When you pull away in the morning, the station detects the disconnect and retracts the plug to await your return in the evening. The coupling could be a guided magnetic one like on Apple’s current laptops.
With the Volt as it is, the laziest people will not like replacing weekly trips to the gas station with twice-daily effort. With Autocharge(TM) technology, the Volt could go months on end without the slightest driver involvement.