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.
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The last year before job 1 is used to refine the assembly processes and adjust the component designs to facilitate assembly, as well as some final verification testing and tweaking of vehicle dynamics and NVH. This vehicle has to be at least 3 years out if the battery supplier is not yet selected, IMHO.
Umm, fact-check in Aisle Two, please
“…will supply 12-watt and 50-watt auxiliary water pumps necessary to circulate coolant…
Might that be 12- and 50-volt pumps? Since a common turn signal bulb is 35w, it seems unlikely a water pump would be less.
Isn’t the Cruze getting the same 1.4 liter engine as the Volt. Does it have a conventional water pump run off the engine or a nifty electric thing like this. OR is this water pump strictly to run the cooling for the batteries?
If I had a nonhybrid car I don’t think I would want my water pump to be electric with all the electrical nightmares you get with cars these days, you might end up with an overheated or seized up engine because of some faulty wiring. Or at a minimum a lot of dealership visits on a tow truck.
I just thought of another question, does the Volt have two(2) cooling systems with 2 radiators. One for the engine and one for the batteries. I’m no expert but it doesn’t seem like a good idea to have one cooling system with the same antifreeze for both, you don’t want to draw off engine heat to make the batteries hotter.
guyincognito, I would think you could get all those things done with dummy batteries.
And I think you must… the battery technology could change for the better the longer you wait. And you get more test time on both batteries with the longer wait… in fact, that’s probably more important.
The problem with waiting is the cost of the batteries… in order to commit to pricing, the supplier needs a contract and may need to build his own assembly line. No one wants to do that if they might be left twisting in the wind.
GM’s squeezed not by the assembly process but by the supplier lead time and the need to test some totally new technology because they’re going to use it in a car that’s designed to last 10 years instead of a laptop that’s designed to last 3.
In comparison, Toyota leveraging their existing proven investment in NiMH by simply building an incrementally better car at (very likely) lower cost sure looks like the way to go.
See the CSIRO, lead acid, available now, 100K battery, don’t need no fancy cooling.
Why does GM have to made a decision on the battery maker? Why can’t they continue to use both?
That way they can continue to test out both systems while the car goes in to beta testing and the first year of roll out.
If one battery turns out to be a dud, then they can replace it with the winning battery.
@ Kixstart,
Well if the batteries have design frozen dimensions, weights, and performance specs that are identical between the two suppliers, then that would be true. However, since the batteries are not sourced I doubt the designs could be finalized or the same from one supplier to another. By this point in a normal product development cycle you’d want your major components, off of production tools and processes, to have completed verification testing. Simple things like tolerance stack ups can be a bitch in mass producton.
Of course, it could be that GM is planning to circumvent normal cycle times by using its customers for final verification testing. This actually could become a new ethos for the electric auto industry. I saw posts on the Tesla blog about certain design flaws being fixed in the Tesla 1.5 update, as though it were an iphone.
@ Redbarchetta:
I’m thinking the same thing. If the Li-ON batteries wanted to be in the same temperature range as the engine (180°F, more or less), that would be one thing, but for optimal life, the batteries should really be kept well below 77°F — which, in the summer, is more like refrigeration than just cooling.
guyincognito: “Well if the batteries…”
Each battery is a pile of small cells; the shape of the outside package is probably close to arbitrary. GM has several copies of battery from both potential suppliers and they look identical.
guyincognito: “Of course, it could be that GM is planning to circumvent normal cycle times by using its customers for final verification testing.”
Yeah. Probably. :-(
JT: the VW VR-6 used a belt driven pump and an electric pump. While VWs products have their issues, I never heard anything about the electric pump being a problem. Not questioning your volt vs watt statement. I think you are on track there.
Congratulations on winning the contract with GM.
You get to look forward to be bullied, harassed and paid, hopefully, within 60 days for your product.