GM-volt.com‘s Lyle Dennis has pinged me with his story on the Chevrolet plug-in electric/gas hybrid Volt’s development timeline. So, we learn that . . .
Andrew Farah, the Volt’s lead engineer actually has a countdown clock in his office revealing that 63 days from today, assembly of the first true Volt will start. All the parts will be lined up at the low volume assembly facility and will begin to come together that day. Andrew notes the first one will take longer to produce, but for all intents and purposes will come to life on June 1st. They will then be built at a rate of roughly 10 per week until a total fleet of over 80 is completed.
“All intents and purposes” is like “Not to insult you, but . . . ” In other words, wiggle room. Anyway, let’s follow this through.
According to Greg Ceisel, GM’s Voltec manager, 2010 will bring several more build stages. “We’ve got several phases leading up to the production launch where we build larger and larger batches,” says Ciesel “in each phase as we perfect the production process, make sure we’ve got all the fit finish and other details exactly correct and that the quality of the vehicle meets our standards before we go into the first vehicles that will ultimately be saleable vehicles that will be shipped to the dealerships.”
He said there will be “a hundred or so” of these final pre-production Volts that will also act as a captured test fleet for mostly GM employees.
By November of 2010 the first saleable Volts will begin being built at the Hamtramck plant and shipped to dealerships.
Wanna bet?
Wanna bet?
A distillation, they call it.
What’s a “Volt”? I’ve never heard of this car. (tongue firmly planted in cheek.)
This must mean that all the battery questions have been resolved, right?
These guys must be reading Tesla’s PR playbook.
Meanwhile, every electric and hybrid vehicle GM has manufactured to date has been a massive sales flop.
Lokki
Yes. Absolutely. Sorted. Must be.
It means they can build them.
It doesn’t mean they meet customer expectations.
It doesn’t mean they’ll ever make money.
It doesn’t mean they’ll ever sell any.
But it also means GM can say to Congress: “Look, see, we’ve built 100 Volts; you can’t shut us down now! You must underwrite this loser vehicle with rebates [so people feel good about paying $40k for an economy car]!”
And Congress will oblige GM, since the tree-huggers have taken over. Sigh….
June 1st is my birthday. Can I get a free Volt as a birthday present? Not that I actually want one, but I figured I’d throw it out there. It might be a collector’s item once everyone figures out it’s a $40000 Cruze and they stop production on them.
What’s the news about them disclosing a normal procedure for vehicle production launch?
They have to test those things on the road after that. Then fix the problems they find… they have a long road ahead yet.
It just saddens me that anyone would call the Volt an “economy car”. Whether or not you think the Volt will get built, to label the concept that way is just simplistic nonsense. As I have said before, I don’t think the average American car owner will ever invest the time and energy to grasp this topic.
Maybe it is just me, but I don’t see being able to do 90% of my normal driving without buying any frigging gasoline as a simple “economy car” equation. I live two miles from my workplace. I live five miles from town. Maybe once per week or so I drive thirty miles to the “big town” nearby. So I would use a quart or two of gas on the way back on that occasional drive. Can nobody see the value of that? If nothing else, it preserves more gasoline for everybody else to enjoy.
Why, why why is there so much cynical, angry, and poorly sorted diatribe against the concept of alternative approaches to basic transportation. Surely it is agreed that we have to at least attempt as many approaches as possible to ending the scrotal grasp the oil cartels have on all of us!
If we continue with the “well shit it costs more than a simple four cylinder tinbox so I ain’t buyin’ it” attitude we will deserve our future.
dougw,
Good and valid points you’ve made. Fortunately your situation makes something like the Volt workable for transportation. ($40k price notwithstanding.) UNfortunately your situation is different than 99.9999% of the U.S. population which means that the net impact of the Volt on oil consumption is close to zero. When faced with numbers like these, it makes much more sense to apply the resources that the Volt is sucking up towards incremental improvements to existing technologies such as the four cylinder tinbox. Just saying.
Tex
p.s. In normally capitalist times, the market would sort this argument out. Unfortunately TARP and bailouts have set aside capitalism for now.
120 Volts = Shocking Development
80 Volts = Not So Much (unless you’re standing in water).
Just making sure that the bailout pump remains primed, I guess.
TexN
That is a lot of nines, and not even close to the truth.
I live in a small midwest city and the majority of people I know could use the Volt without using any gasoline. I think there are many more users than you think.
Whether they will pay that price we shall see.
dougw: “I live two miles from my workplace. I live five miles from town. Maybe once per week or so I drive thirty miles to the “big town” nearby. So I would use a quart or two of gas on the way back on that occasional drive. Can nobody see the value of that?”
If you do, fine. But you’ll be spending $40K to avoid using (gets calculator) something like $200-$400 of gasoline per year and emitting 500 lbs of carbon from your tailpipe (although you will move much of that carbon emission elsewhere, as much electricity is generated using coal/oil/natural gas)
I certainly wouldn’t do that.
If you’re trying to save the planet, put your $40K into SPV or solar heat/hot water or even additional insulation. You’ll reduce GHG emissions far more that way. If you pick the right project, you could improve your cash flow and free up more money for other energy-saving/GHG abating activities. Many of which will offer a benefit long after that $40K Volt has been junked.
If you’re trying to reduce oil imports, you should just encourage a tax on gas (or a carbon tax). That will not only encourages people who actually drive 40 miles/day to consider something like the Volt but it also encourages a host of other behavioral changes, some of which could have significant immediate impact (like, car-pooling).
In fact, with the amount and kind of driving you do, if you think the Volt addresses some sort of worthwhile goal, you should NOT buy one, you should leave more Volts for people who will actually use them to supplant driving in conventionally powered cars.
Juniper,
You may be right, and GM’s market analysis is certainly more in line with your comments than mine. As I alluded to in my post, I wish the free market were allowed to work so we could see how it would play out. Alas, it doesn’t look like that will be the case. Good comments all around, though!
Tex
p.s. I actually took out a calculator and after a quick calculation removed one of my 9’s!
Juniper –
There are some perpherial problems with the electric car concept that aren’t visible on the surface…
Here in Dallas I have a 19-mile each-way commute. 38 miles on a 40 mile range… perfect you say.
However, in Summer the temperature is often (in one recent year 40 days in a row) over 100 degrees F. This means that I WILL be using the air conditioning. Suddenly my range falls below 38 miles. How much? I don’t know yet.
In Pennsylvania, where I used to live, it was common for temperatures to stay below 30 degrees for weeks at a time. This also means decreased range, both because of heater use, and because batteries have less power at cold temperatures.
Don’t worry, you say, you have the gasoline engine for backup. Yes, but if I’m using gasoline anyhow, a Prius becomes a better solution.
Additionally, there is the question of recharging. Although I have a reserved parking place at work, none of our parking spaces has an electrical plug-in available for recharging while at work.
Fortunately, I have a garage at home. However, even then, I still don’t like the idea of having to get out of a car that’s dripping rain, and having to open a wet grimy cover, pull out the wet grimy electric cord and then plug it in.
It’s not all going to be unicorns and ice cream cones living with electrical cars.
If reducing use of gas is your main priority, then allow the import of the very small Japanese Kei class cars, which were advertising 25K/L (about 60 mpg) when I was there a few weeks ago.
All of the new ones have automatic transmissions, airconditioning, both driver and passenger air bags, and plenty of room for 4 adult passengers.
Agree with you, TexN, about the market. I still wonder what would have happened with the EV-1 had the California Air Resources Board not put its electric car mandate in place. GM may well have let the EV-1 find a market rather than fight the mandate and, having won, killed the EV-1.
In Pennsylvania, where I used to live, it was common for temperatures to stay below 30 degrees for weeks at a time. This also means decreased range, both because of heater use, and because batteries have less power at cold temperatures.
Wasn’t there something a few weeks ago that said the battery would have decreased capabilities between 0-10 Celcius (32-50 Fahrenheit)? If so, the northern states would be in that range, or lower, for about six months out of the year.
50K a piece.
“Gee honey, an Acura, Infinity, BMW or a Volt?”
Just wait until real world users start testing them. When I worked for a software company we were always amazed how customers could find bugs in three weeks we missed in 3 years of testing.
This project is too much for GM to do on Union lines within the limits of their parts bin. For what, a 40 mile radius under the best of conditions?
Can GM just grow up and get real.
Additionally, there is the question of recharging. Although I have a reserved parking place at work, none of our parking spaces has an electrical plug-in available for recharging while at work.
And your boss won’t have a problem with a 40 amp draw for a few hours. Makes using the fax machine or copier for personal use seem a little small.
Lokki
I never used the word perfect. Please don’t put words in my statement. Please deal with the truth.
If your commute is 4O miles a day then don,t buy one. However, I have confidence in the imagination of our fellow Americans (no k) in that garage owners and parking lot owners may add power outlets for a fee and let plug in owners charge while at work. Obviously not until enough are around. This will add to the daytime load, but is feasible. So if you have a 50 mile daily commute it could work. Yes,there will be problems and changes in habits. I think many will be willing to adapt. If not you so be it.
This project is too much for GM to do on Union lines within the limits of their parts bin.
Technically the Volt is not much of a stretch. Even gasoline cars have become much more electric over the past 20 years. Current high-end cars have about 50 microprocessors and 2 million lines of code already. Tesla was able to make a reliable electric version of the Lotus Elise without much trouble.
I expect the Volt to work fairly well. There will be problems. But there seem to be enough early adopters — who tend to be sympathetic to break-in woes — to keep GM pumping out Volts for at least the first year.
With the federal government clearly willing to subsidize this car, and even bankrupt California ready to step up as well, pricing should not be a problem either.
UNfortunately your situation is different than 99.9999% of the U.S. population which means that the net impact of the Volt on oil consumption is close to zero.
Actually 75-80% of American drivers average less than 40 miles a day.
Juniper –
I was simply trying to respond to your question as to why there are so many doubters among us. I certainly have no objection if you choose to buy a Volt – more power to you (if you’ll forgive the bad pun). I’m actually glad that you’ll be an early adopter who will work out the bugs for the rest of us.
Ronnie –
I think you missed a few posts. It’s probably true that 75-80 percent of American Drivers drive less than 40 miles per day, but we’ve just established that the range of the Volt on many days, for many reasons won’t be 40 miles. From what I’ve read elsewhere, in cold weather or in particularly hot weather, the electrical range will probably be reduced by 25 percent.
So the real question becomes – what percent of Americans drive less than 30 miles per day?
Here’s another point: As you can see from my post above, statistically, I’m one of those 75-80 percent who drive less than 40 miles per day….
However that’s an annual average, not a daily one. For example, I have a hobby that has me traveling to a location away from my home 3 nights per week. The added miles there are probably adjusted out of the average by the fact that I don’t travel that much on weekends…..
But – remember that averages are dangerous statistics – if you have one foot in a bucket of cold water, and one foot in a bucket of hot water, the average temperature of your feet is warm.
On WABC radio this past weekend I was listening to the money show. The host was asked the usual questions about GM’s shaky future, and then the question came up about the Volt’s viability. He was impressed with the Volts styling and engineering, but did not think its technology really solves the energy issue. He stated the Volt was still using a coal burning power grid for its recharging. The host then said, if we were a nation that used nuclear power maybe the Volt would make more sense. I think this was a pretty valid statement made from somebody who is obviously not a “car guy”.
Watch GM cancel the Volt for lack of funds. I’ll laugh harder than I ever have before.
With Way-goner in charge anything is possible.
Any CEO that can reduce GM’s marketshare nearly 10 points in 10 years has to be taken seriously.
Good Job……..
The gasoline engine creating the electricity to run the electric motor will wind up buring about 45 mpg. The gasoline engine running at the most efficient rpm for the production of electrictiy is a great start. Now the recovery of the energy by the regenerative breaking to help recharge the batteries is another item all the negative folks here do not attend.
Best of all we are going away from oil. Since, the folks that have this oil main concern is to deliver smoke and fire to our financial heart such as the twin towers. The cost of the twin towers was estimated at $500,000,000,000 to $1,000,000,000,000 look at what happen to the market then of course the war was another trillon dollars. Figure that into your equation (401)
So these are such obvious costs, I believe most of you folks are posters from the middle east that just don’t want us to take the first steps which are always the most costly and short sightedly could be argued of no value. Wait a minute i have to get my prayer rug out now because I do not want you finding out who I am so you don’t persue your normal course of action.
That Black Frit on the side windows is UGLY.
And $40K for a Daewoo with an oversized Lap Top Battery = FAIL.
If this is what my Bail Out $$$ are buying, count me out.
blindfaith: “I believe most of you folks are posters from the middle east that just don’t want us to take the first steps which are always the most costly and short sightedly could be argued of no value.”
Try “the Midwest.”
I’ve been in favor of the “first steps” for decades. Instead of taking “first steps,” we went on an oil-drinking binge.
If, starting today, every car manufactured was a serial-electric hybrid with 40 miles of battery range, it would be 30 years before the US auto fleet was 90% electric and we’d still be using a fair amount of oil, as these cars will be operated outside their electric-only range.
Oil imports are a fact of life for the foreseeable future, unless your big plan is to run out of oil first and think we can drill for it and suck it up fast enough to avoid importation… for a few years. Anyway, we can’t. Doesn’t matter how many holes you poke in the ground.
With some effort, we can do something far worse to the petrodictatorships… we can drive down the price of oil so far that they hardly make money on it. In other words, preactically steal it.
Well… superhuman effort is probably required now. Had we started on a campaign to starve petrodictatorships of revenue 10, 15 or 30 years ago, we’d have much better odds of actually achieving this.
I live in a sprawl – a town that is a slave to the automobile – with a population of 8K in 1986 and a population of 55K today. If we had engineered this city for a lifestyle that didn’t involve enslavement to the automobile, we’d see a reduction in our current gas consupmtion of something like 8 million gallons of gas per year. Just from developing this one city differently.
We’d see fewer N-car families, so families would have more income available for expenses other than transportation. If I could reduce my auto fleet by 1, I’d be able to take a nice cruise every year and still bank a little extra money.
We’d be spending far less money on roads. Right now, there’s a project in it’s 2nd year to re-develop a section of what’s called “The Cross-Town Commons” (it’s basically a chicane – the stupidest idea I’ve ever seen in traffic engineering). Not only is it costing us a gazillion bucks, commute times are way up while it’s under way. I hope the improvement is worth the construction delays.
Diametricallly opposite is another project to re-develop a different Commons, said project also in its second year, also costing a gazillion bucks.
“Spaghetti Junction” in downtown St. Paul was revamped about 20 years ago. There’s little room left to reorganize routing or increase capacity at key points without condemning and buying expensive real estate (less expensive for its proximity to the noise, of course).
What’s the contribution per Minnesota taxpayer for the current highway construction? A few hundred bucks per year? More? In addition, I’m paying $400/year for the street improvements in front of my house, plus some to my local government for other road projects.
And the taxes actually levied on vehicle fuels is inadequate to the real costs. Our thirst for oil, which made people like Saddam Husseein and Osama bin Laden rich enough to cause serious trouble, has caused us to spend untold billions extra on defense – and cost many lives.
The Volt is not a magic bullet of any kind. In the pitiful quantities GM will build, it has negligible value to any social goal. Even if manufacturers adopt this tech wholesale, we’ll still continue to spend our incomes on cars and we’ll still be spending billions on roads and we’ll still be using fuel, especially as increasing sprawl will also increase driving distances.