As the National Enquirer used to say, Lyle Dennis and GM are closerthanthis. On his gm-volt.com website, the doctor turned propagandist reports on a conversation with Jon Lauckner, VP Global Product Development (a.k.a. “Mr Volt”). Much like GM PR, Dennis has made the psychological leap from proof of concept (for Chevy’s plug-in electric/gas hybrid) to real world logistics—without actually completing the first step. Down the rabbit hole we go, with gm-volt.com’s “GM Close to Launch Plan for the Chevy Volt.” Oh, before I share the spin, I’d like to point out that GM was really close to being close to having a launch plan for the Volt long before they were close to having a launch plan for the Volt. Right. So. Lauckner.
I would say what we have decided is we probably are not going to use an approach where we launch the Volt simultaneously in all markets in the US. Lets face it, this vehicle is a bit different than a normal vehicle. We need to make sure that all of the charging infrastructure is in place so that all people have a really good customer experience.
I’ve decided that I’m probably not going to point out that the “charging infrastructure” in question is . . . a plug. Oh, wait. I just did. Seriously. Is GM going to wait until the government puts sockets on the streets before launching the Volt? I don’t think so. At least I hope not. Wait, am I being thick here? No dumberer than Volt customers, apparently.
There needs to be some education and training. Obviously if people buy a Volt and they don’t plug it in at night or they plug it in only sporadically they’re going to have a very different customer experience and probably not be as completely satisfied with the Volt as they would if they were plugging it in each and every night and using it exactly they was it was intended, recognizing that electricity was meant to be used as its primary fuel, not the small gas engine on board that was intended to be its range extender.
My takeaway: Mr. Lauckner probably, maybe, kinda sorta ya think never met a qualifier he didn’t like. Or a . . . no, I’m not going to say it.
Will you be soliciting feedback from those initial buyers?
Absolutely. Those are people that will be purchasing the vehicle but we are going to try to establish a very close relationship with those people. People that are genuinely interested in the Volt for its technology and the fact that it doesn’t use petroleum as its primary fuel and have a strong interest in helping us make that particular type of propulsion [a] huge success. Like you, Lyle.
I guess I can’t join you with mocking GM on this one. Of course they have to assume people are stupid, because so very many people are so very stupid.
I work in the IT field, and I have for about 15 years. I know what I’m talking about here. Every time I think I’ve seen a new low for human stupidity, I shortly thereafter am proven wrong.
These same people…they buy cars.
The other small revelation will be that electricity costs money. I think most people are under the impression that putting a (little) bit of gasoline in the Volt is all that is necessary. The costs will be the sum of the gasoline and electricity costs. Energy is not free. Volt does not change the amount of energy that it takes to move a vehicle around.
Let’s suppose for a second that GM sold enough Volts to return them to profitability and repay the loans.
What would that do to our nations’ (US, Canada & Mexico) capacity to produce electricity?
So let me wrap my noodle around this…
You mean, great fuel economy is achieved by… using my head? Brilliant!
Just imagine what people could do if they drove their current cars with… their heads. By golly… we wouldn’t even need a Volt.
Oh goodie, we’re ready ready ready here in Saskatchewan. We all plug in our cars most nights every winter.
Of course, these battery systems don’t work all that well in the cold…
I wonder if cars like this will make AC outlets at hotel parking lots and office parking lots ubiquitous in a few years.
I guess I can’t join you with mocking GM on this one. Of course they have to assume people are stupid, because so very many people are so very stupid.
I don’t necessarily agree with that. The way the Volt operates is confusing. For a long time I was under the impression that the vehicle would run off of the battery and that the Gas Engine would run an onboard generator to maintain the charge. From what I understand now, that isn’t true, the Gas Engine is wired to only directly run the electric motors once the Battery is depleted. The only way to charge the Battery is to plug in.
This makes no sense to me and can only be explained through either 1) Cost cutting or 2) Technical problems which GM isn’t admitting to.
People are stupid. Very, very stupid. They WILL be dumb enough to not plug the car in. How much time and money have Toyota/Honda spent emphasizing that the Insight and Prius do NOT need plugged in? GM has to make it clear their car is different. To a lot of people, a hybrid is a hybrid is a hybrid. Series/Parallel/EREV/whatever, they don’t know the difference or probably care.
How many RX-8 owners don’t realize their engine is fundamentally different from every other engine out there? (even some of the people who SELL them!) They complain about burning oil without understanding the whole concept of the oil injection system and it leaves them with a bad taste in their mouth.
Say the Volt gets rated at an EPA 100MPG (which has been rumored) and some idiot buys it, uses it like a prius, doesn’t plug it in, or rarely plugs it in, and can’t figure out why he’s only getting 30mpg. You can bet he’ll be complaining loudly.
@Rod Panhard,
I keep hearing from all the experts that the electric grid has capacity to recharge these vehicles if the recharging is done at night.
The last time I checked, California barely had enough electricity to run all the light, air conditioners, and computers on a normal day.
Volt moves the need for energy to move the car from gasoline to electricity. The amount of energy needed to move the vehicle is the same; it’s just coming primarily from a different place (electricity).
paris-dakar :
I’m not saying you’re wrong, but my general point is people will screw it up horribly no matter which method is a) correct and b) carefully explained
paris-dakar:
From what I understand now, that isn’t true, the Gas Engine is wired to only directly run the electric motors once the Battery is depleted. The only way to charge the Battery is to plug in.
This makes no sense to me and can only be explained through either 1) Cost cutting or 2) Technical problems which GM isn’t admitting to.
This has been gone over many, many times; efficiency is lost by charging the battery from the ICE, not to mention extra charge/recharge cycles on the battery reduce its lifespan. When the battery is depleted, the vehicle will propel itself like nearly every railroad locomotive and cruise liner out there (ie. at about 20mph).
the “charging infrastructure” in question is… a plug
Could they mean special meters to take advantage of low cost night-time electricity ? I don’t believe my electrical meter could tell the difference between a midnight or a midday charge.
Education and training,and then some.An infrastructure indeed.So are we going to intall plugs everywhere?Are they going to be coin opperated?Do they come with an extension cord?I can see the thieves having a heyday.If somebody comes to visit,do you offer them a recepticle?Will you have to shut off your outside plugs?Are we going need electric car etiquette.How many times do you let your buddy plug in,before you hit the breaker?
We all got a pal that forgets his wallet,or goes to the can when its his turn to buy a round.This will be the same guy,that never forgets his extension cord.
Oh yeah if the Volt is a succees,many like it will follow.This should be interesting.
Part of the answer to the “electric etiquette” will be the answer to the cost question. Will a charge cost 1 cent or 10 dollars? I predict dollars.
Here’s something I’ve missed in all of this… has GM said definitely that it will charge on household 110 volts at less than 10 amps? The voltage/amperage supplied is a big factor in the recharge rate of ANY battery.
If it charges on 110, will it use less than 10 amps? If not you will be blowing breakers unless you use a 20 amp circuit. If it uses another voltage will you have to install a specific transformer at your house or will there be one on board the vehicle?
These issues may have already been addressed, I haven’t followed the Volt that closely.
This has been gone over many, many times; efficiency is lost by charging the battery from the ICE, not to mention extra charge/recharge cycles on the battery reduce its lifespan. When the battery is depleted, the vehicle will propel itself like nearly every railroad locomotive and cruise liner out there (ie. at about 20mph).
If that’s the case, then I would develop a lower cost version that omitted the Battery and ran in that mode all the time. Of course GM would have to give up on their ‘no fossil fuel’ marketing angle, but that never meant much to me anyway.
That sort of Hybrid probably would be cheaper than the Prius.
Look, we live in a world where we have to label McDonald’s coffee as “HOT” and where frozen pizza has “COOK BEFORE EATING” on the label.
I can see some people being this stupid.
@paris-dakar
I doubt the power train will be as efficient as a regular FWD with ICE (otherwise others would have done it by now), the only advantage the Volt has is its ability to perform most daily errands purely on inexpensive mains electricity.
The battery needs to be in some sort of drop tank like fighter aircraft have, so its bulk can be ejected once exhausted.
I actually agree with Mr. Lauckner on this one, but not because people are stupid, but because they are lazy.
This is the point I made several blogs ago: That the customer experience will be harmed by the fact that people hate being enslaved to their vehicles, and will tend to not charge them overnight. The result will be people driving around well beyond the 40-mile limit with low-HP Volts, and I believe people will get sick of the nightly routine.
RF – were you a stand up comic in a previous life? This editorial was a hoot. Keep the heat on ’em.
Was going to post a long comment about how little meat there is to this snark, but I just can’t muster the energy. Since people aren’t lining up with down payments, not buying cars in the meantime, it’s really only us obsessed-with-car-news autogeeks that are feeling disapointment over this stuff. Honda milks it’s not on the market Clarity for PR fluff and GM should do the same with the Volt.
Or maybe I just couldn’t care less because I have no plans to actually buy one. Big shrug.
gslippy:
People seem to get used to plugging in their cellphones every night..
My Canadian friends, I recognize that you have receptacles for electrical plugs all over your fabulous country. But that’s only to operate a relatively small little water heater device. That’s not going to draw as much energy as a cold battery that needs a recharge.
And yes, it takes the same amount of energy to move a 3000 pound car if it’s gasoline or electrons. But the problem is that you have to store the electrons in something very heavy. It’s a lot heavier than gasoline. So your 3000 pound gasoline powered car becomes at least a 3400 pound electric car (if we’re lucky).
So all the energy that’s been pumped through Shell and Exxon and BP, etc., will then get “pumped” through your electrical grid. In fact, since the cars are heavier, it will take even more energy. Factor in the losses in transmission and that’s even more energy.
Do you want a power plant in your backyard? How about a windmill? Can you recharge your car battery on solar power at night? Obviously not. So if you need to “store” your energy during the day from solar power, then guess what you’re buying … another battery!
My point is, two fold. 1. Volt can’t save GM. 2. Even if Volt could save GM, North America can’t support Volt.
I work in the IT field, and I have for about 15 years. I know what I’m talking about here. Every time I think I’ve seen a new low for human stupidity, I shortly thereafter am proven wrong.
Preach it, brother.
People seem to get used to plugging in their cellphones every night..
You would be surprised. I’ve personally taken a call from one fellow who didn’t realize he had to plug his laptop in to recharge (the phrase was “What do, you mean ‘plug it in’, what’s the point of a portable computer I have to plug in\'”) and was quite angry that it would run out of power so quickly, and how such a situation was unacceptable.
Working helpdesk was humbling. It really hammers home that a) there’s a whole range of intelligence within the human population, b) somewhere there’s a median, c) half the people are below that median and d) it’s still an awful lot of people.
Virtually every person alive in the United States is used to the concept of filling up the tank of a car and driving several hundred miles at any legal speed. The Volt changes that experience and what Lauckner is trying to change that expectation. You will only be able to drive tens of miles before you need to plug in for hours to “fill-up”. Exceed the range and you will drive slowly (not on the interstate). People can adjust to that for their daily routine, but it will take some education by the manufacturer. It will not be a car you take on your vacation trip.
It seems pretty obvious to me that anyone who [theoretically] buys this car will know what it is. I don’t expect too many oh shit! I bought an electric car! moments.
Oh, and generally speaking, people don’t like change. Especially if it involves inconvenience.
Well, one would hope at $40,000 — GM will develop appropriate “education materials.”
Maybe include a flashing light on the dash when the car is turned off & parked “PLUG ME IN PLEASE”
Energy is not free.
This is the point that people seem to miss.
John
I don’t expect too many oh shit! I bought an electric car! moments.
Well, I do.
It was cold and raining like hell last night. Wipers, heater and A/C to keep the windshield clear. Given my 38-mile-round-trip commute, there’d be no way I could avoid having to plug in the car.
Get home to the garage….(at least I HAVE a garage these days), and with the Volt, I’d have to fiddle around in a cold garage running the electrical cord from the outlet to however it plugs into the Volt. I’m guessing that the cord will be attached to the car itself on a recoil like a vacuum cleaner… which means that the cord will be wet and muddy too. I’d really hate it if I didn’t have a garage.
Too much like having to take the dog for a walk in a rain storm – you have to really love that dog…. and I don’t think most people (except for the fanatics) are going to love their Volts that much.
Yeah, there will be a LOT of people unhappy with the electric car ‘gotta plug ‘er in or else’ experience.
There is reason to believe that charging at night won’t exceed the electricity grid’s capacity. Industrial use and A/C use are huge during the daytime and go way down during the night. Check out the graph here: http://www.caiso.com/outlook/SystemStatus.html
California already has “time of use” rates for people with solar electricity generation systems. That way they can sell their surplus electricity back to the grid at the high-cost daytime rate and then use electricity from the grid at the low-cost night rate. The beauty of TOU rates and charging cars is that consumers’ desire to minimize electricity costs corresponds with the benefit of leveling out the grid load.
One thing I’d suggest to the Volt designers is that the car should be programmable with TOU rate schedules and the user’s intended morning commute time. That way, for example, I get home at 7:00 PM and plug the car in, but the Volt won’t bother charging until 1:00 AM because it knows that the battery only needs a few hours of charging and that 1:00 AM is when the rate is lowest and that I don’t intend to drive it again until 9:30 the next morning. If the car thought it needed an 11 hour charge, however, it would start at 9:00 PM, which would give me a better rate than if it had to continue charging right up until 9:30 AM the next morning.
And, because consumers are so lazy… Another feature I’d like to see is that the car should have some sort of robotic arm that automatically plugs the car in when the car pulls into the garage. The arm would probably stay in the garage when the car leaves, so that the car doesn’t have to carry the thing around all the time.
Will a remote starter be an option on the Volt?
“Exceed the range and you will drive slowly (not on the interstate).”
Did I miss something? I thought the ICE was strong enough for more-or-less basic highway cruising. It might be a little slow up the hills, but nothing more than that? Also, wouldn’t the “electric transmission” give the benefit of allowing the engine to run at its strongest at any road speed? That would help there too.
I just heard a GM sponsorship ad on NPR that said something along lines of “The 2011 Chevy Volt”…
RF,
I think you are missing the big piece in the middle here: Jon Lauckner just admitted that performance stinks if you drive this vehicle on gasoline. As speculated before, on this very blog…
So, keep the batteries charged, guys! And good luck if you need to drive more than 40 miles (34 on a cold day).
This is looking worse by the day…
RF: “It seems pretty obvious to me that anyone who [theoretically] buys this car will know what it is. I don’t expect too many oh shit! I bought an electric car! moments.”
I agree. I figure their first clues will be A) the plug and B) the enormous price tag on what seems, otherwise, to be an economy car.
Someone who does not want an electric car is not going to pony up $40K for a Cruze with a weird-oh drivetrain.
I saw this article on GM-V and it looks like Lauckner is spinning – probably to temper expectations and provide cover for mediocre performance.
Why not string power lines over every street like they used to do for streetcars and have “routes” established for Volts to follow. Then, Volt buyers could “subscribe” to the routes they want, say, one to/from work, and one to/from the kids’ school, etc.
Oh, wait ! That’s too complicated also. Maybe they won’t sell very many of them after all.
It seems pretty obvious to me that anyone who [theoretically] buys this car will know what it is. I don’t expect too many oh shit! I bought an electric car! moments.
OTOH, I expect quite a few WTF is wrong with this car? moments as the battery runs out for the first time and the user has to make do with roughly half the horses from gasoline.
I saw this article on GM-V and it looks like Lauckner is spinning – probably to temper expectations and provide cover for mediocre performance.
Vintage GM, isn’t it? Hype the product they don’t have, and then backtrack when the real product hits the road, or in this case, well in advance of that…
The saddest moment was at the 100th birthday bash when they celebrated the product that still has to be invented as if it was their biggest achievement yet.
@SunnyvaleCA
There is reason to believe that charging at night won’t exceed the electricity grid’s capacity. Industrial use and A/C use are huge during the daytime and go way down during the night. Check out the graph here
I live in a small town that had a sudden influx of huge McMansions. Every so often in the evening when the air conditioners, jacuzzis, pool filters etc. were turned on, something would blow and the whole town would lose power. Eventually they put in a new power substation that seems to have solved the problem.
There is still a lot of AC use in the evening in many parts of the US and if there is huge influx of electric cars, some communities will have problems. Many people will wake up in the morning with their clocks screwed up and their cars half charged.
My young teenage son just point out the many opportunities for delinquency that the Volt will provide.
He said just imagine all the Volt’s parked out in the driveway – ’cause the garage is too full of crap – what 13 year old walking by in the evenings could not resist walking over and pulling the plug.
Good luck getting to work in the morning.
Bad kids. You got to love them though….
When the battery is depleted, the vehicle will propel itself like nearly every railroad locomotive and cruise liner out there (ie. at about 20mph).
Doubt it. A vehicle such as this could never even be certified to run on a public road.
I bet GM is working some deal with GE or some other company to develop a SmartGrid utility power meter that will be required to be sold to each Volt buyer. This could prevent the vehicle from charging during peak usage…or charging customers a premiun to charge the Volt during this time. The smart meter technology is cell phone based and can tell how much power the grid is using realtime.
For those unfamiliar, Smart Meters can work in concert with power hogs in your house to prevent electricity from being used during peak hours. An example would be delaying your AC from turning on right at 5:30pm when rates are highest and turning it on at 3:30 and then off from 5:30 – 7pm, or turning it on just when the grid changes to cheaper rates.
It wouldn’t surprise me if they found a new and unique way to find profit for the Volt.
The Volt is effectively two cars for the price of one. You are getting a glorified Cobalt and a EV. They would be better off dusting off the plans for the EV1 and selling it for $20-25k that this hermaphrodite bastard.
This is like the story of the Arab’s and their first cars. they were so still stuck on the idea that camels need herbs and such to keep going, they would stick camel food down the gasoline filler cap, and then go to the mechanic complaining that their cars are broken. mechanic cleans the tank, and then refuels, and charges a bundle.
this story might not be entirely true (except for mechanics cheating part) but it has the same spirit.
I doubt the Volt’s initial customers might be dim, but once sales take off and prices become more reasonable, people might buy them. but in the US 110V outlets are used, and as per GM it would take an overnight to recharge the Volt, whereas a 220v would take 3 hours, will they be enhancing or installing 220V converters in homes of Volt buyers to speed up the charge?
mikey :
If somebody comes to visit,do you offer them a recepticle? Will you have to shut off your outside plugs? Are we going need electric car etiquette.
Well, what was customary in the Old West, when a friend came to visit on his horse? Was it considered polite to offer water and food for the horse?
Maybe a little politeness and hospitality wouldn’t be a bad thing in this day and age.
How many times do you let your buddy plug in,before you hit the breaker? We all got a pal that forgets his wallet,or goes to the can when its his turn to buy a round. This will be the same guy,that never forgets his extension cord.
No, we all don’t “got a pal” like that. Maybe it begs the question: How many times have you and your gang let this deadbeat off the hook? You just need to wait for him to return from the can!
IMAGINE THE IMPACT
This certainly isn’t part of that 1990 GM inhouse movie about the EV1 but it could well be.
The problem with the EV is not going to be forgetting to plug in. I am sure that anytime the car senses it is at home base in the evening will cause a wireless remote in the house to start beeping if it needs a meal. Just like I do, come to think of it.
No, the problem occurs the next morning, with you forgetting you are plugged in.
As a frequent user of a car block heater, it sometimes happens, since you are looking out the rear window as you reverse out to the road, that you will inadvertantly be entered into Mode One of this saga.
Mode One, if you are lucky, will have the two pin plug pull out when the 50′ extension runs out.
Mode Two has you now towing the aforesaid extension cord down the road with you.
Mode Two could have the extension shake loose in the street otherwise you generally proceed rather quickly to Mode Three, the sad and final stage.
In Mode Three You run over the cord.
The tire, of course, wants to run parallel to the cord and at the nearest opportunity will clamp it to the road while so doing. Any surplus heater cord that happens to be bundled up and secreted behind the front grille will now unravel. Until… At which point…
Later on you’ll be able to recall the nose of the car dipping slightly. Just before the BIG BANG.
And complete disintegration of that plastic grille.
Amazing what a small caliber (5amp 2 wire) cord can do.
Now Imagine the Impact of the heavy duty 20Amp charging cord of the VOLT …..
T2
You guys are being too harsh about the stupidity. It’s not that lots of people are stupid. It’s just that it only takes one stupid person with a lawyer and a stupid majority of a jury to make an entire industry behave as if everyone is stupid.
By the way, it doesn’t make someone stupid if they don’t share your own particular interest in the mechanics of automobiles, it just makes them a different person with difference preferences and priorities about how to spend the scarce supply of time available to them. But you’d know that if you weren’t stupid.
tced2 :
March 26th, 2009 at 3:14 pm
I keep hearing from all the experts that the electric grid has capacity to recharge these vehicles if the recharging is done at night.
The last time I checked, California barely had enough electricity to run all the light, air conditioners, and computers on a normal day.
These two statements are not contradictory. Power usage during the day is many times that of what is used overnight. Assuming an electric car can be charged in a four hours or less (a fair assumption, IMHO), a simple timer causing it to be charged between 1 and 5 am would not cause any shortages of power at all, because there is massive amounts of power to spare available at that time.
I still haven’t figured out how people who live in row houses or apartments with no garage/driveway and on street parking (ie. Me) will charge their electric cars without causing a tripping hazard to pedestrians or having the extension cord pilfered. And that’s even if I can park right outside my house…which is pretty much never.
Guess I’m waiting for a Hydrogen Fuel Cell…
When did the Volt become a “Plug-In” vehicle instead of a “Series Hybrid?”
Before summer ’08’s $4/gallon social experiment and the recent “carmageddon” crash, GM spin had always refered to the Volt as a re-think of prevalent “Synergy” hybrid drivetrains, as employed in the Prius, Insight, and all others. The take-home point in all communications was the anticipated efficiency gains in “series” hybrid technology.
Sometime around the September, the Volt became a “Plug-in Hybrid” rather than a “Series Hybrid,” and not long after that GM brass started flagging all Volt-speak with the “EV” stamp (complete with Jobs-esque reality-distortion field), as if we’re supposed to forget that it even has an ICE. As far as I can tell (I don’t have an inside line deeper than TTAC provides) the actual Volt technology and development course hasn’t changed.
So, talk like Robert highlights, above, disapoints me:
“recognizing that electricity was meant to be used as its primary fuel, not the small gas engine on board that was intended to be its range extender.”
When, exactly, was that recognized by GM? The Volt certainy wasn’t conceived with it–or, at least, they didn’t reveal that little gem of thinking anywhere in the era of “Series Hybrid” talk.
Methinks that if the Volt HAD been conceived, from the start, as an EV with a “range-extender” ICE rather than a “Series Hybrid” vehicle, we’d be looking at a very different product come 2010-er, 2011, er, whenever (if) it comes out.
mjhy98- They stopped calling it a series hybrid way back. All the serious design work has been under the EREV strategy.
I notice there is still the same old FUD being spread by the deliberately uninformed B&B (a nicely ironic tag) about the performance once it is in charge sustaining mode. The vehicle acts like a Prius once its battery is depleted to around 30% SoC, that is it uses the battery as a buffer to provide the difference between the engine’s output and the car’s requirement. Overall there is no net charging of the battery unless you go down a very long hill.
mjhy98- They stopped calling it a series hybrid way back.
GM under Lutz made a complete ballsup of this design. The only good part of the VOLT program is having Denise Gray in charge of battery development.
This PHEV design at $40k is offputting. It goes against the grain of providing buyers what they want at prices they are prepared to pay. It therefore will not be the volume seller that GM needs. I can see only one attraction for owners, besides an interesting talking point for american technology, that in the earlier years the goal of harvesting of much free fuel which will be available in many situations at 110vac.
Personally I would only run the 220vac line out for invited guests and clients. At other times even with the outdoor 110vac, most who hang for 3 to 4 hours would still benefit by at least 15 miles or so. I expect etiquette to play more of a part when time-of-day billing is introduced.
I would hope that the VOLT is shortlived while BEVs and series hybrids are developed. However the VOLT can be a mule for both these future developments.
The series hybrid follows the Prius in that it has the philosophy of being more about the transmission than the engine. The absence of a battery system assist in the series hybrid should not necessarily infer a compensatory increase in the size of the engine either.
For one thing the Volt uses entirely the wrong type of engine for a generator. Simply put the 4 cyl 1.4l that is proposed is both too low in rpm and too heavy in mass. Its excessive mass prevents it from coming to temperature for those shorter trips of under five miles. Then when it is warmed up it is efficient only at the higher power levels, below 10Hp clearly there are far too many moving parts to be able to claim any extraordinary efficiency at that power level.
T2
The engine only runs when it needs to generate power. If the engine is so inefficient below 10 hp then they won’t create a setpoint down there. I can’t remember the lower cutoff power for the Prius, I think it is 1500 rpm, or thereabouts, probably 10-15 hp.
There is no real reason why the Volt’s 1.4 should be a whole lot less efficient that the Prius engine, most of the Prius’ efficiency is engineering, not magic. Specifically the supposed Atkinson cycle benfit would be very small.
-Greg I would rather leave the Prius out of this discussion and concentrate on series hybrids.
But FYI the Prius is known to “park” its engine at 1211 rpm for powers to 12.5Hp although calculation shows it could possibly be capable of 18Hp at that speed. This elevated speed above a normal idle is Toyota building in some insurance against a degraded engine to manage end-of-life issues I would imagine.
With series hybrids efficacy is as important as efficiency. I am sure that if weight were no issue then a 1000lb genset at 1800rpm could be very, very electro-mechanically efficient, but not something you want to drag around the streets at any great speed and acceleration.
Bearing in mind that the purpose of the car is to convey people and not massive pieces of machinery. It may be efficient for the total mass being moved but the payload is usually a 200lb person, so only a fraction of that energy gets used for the primary purpose – which is to move YOU around. The paradox being that the most efficient method per pound of mass moved is the least efficient in fuel and materials. Simply put, where mobile powertrains are concerned one wants to avoid sacrificing oneself on the altar of high efficiency.
That being so, lightness is key. And that infers high speed machinery. In aeronautics, turbine driven 12,000rpm 400Hz generation has been around for decades. And that is where automotive gensets are headed also. On the downside reciprocating engines must be used here for their superior part load efficiency, on the upside they will not need to hold continuously those stratospheric rpms but only sporadically and for less than ten seconds at a time and mostly with spirited driving only.
The new Fiat Panda 2 cyl 900cc SGE with 65Hp would be a suitable candidate, though changing the crankshaft and conrod for a shorter stroke would be necessary. Then there’s the canadian Bombadier company through its Austrian Rotax division. Rotax, a manufacturer of performance snowmobile engines, recently designed the 800cc parallel twin F800S for Aprilia motorcycle. The high rpm capability of this engine and its off-shelf availability make it look to be an even more viable candidate in this field.
The technology I am proposing avoids the use of a “boutique” battery system. Some electrical power may go back to a conventionally sized Pb-acid battery during Regen braking or routed through the A/C compressor as capacity and gentle braking allow, but for the tens of kilowatts from harsh braking – they will find dissipation in electrical resistors strapped to the heater core. Dirty deeds, as they say, will be done dirt cheap.
There is however, an impasse to this technology which I ought to point out. It is whether you can get the consumer acceptance and the enthusiasm for an electric vehicle essentially propelled by a two cylinder motorcycle engine even if it does net you 70mpg and eight seconds to 60. That’s going to be the real challenge.
Are you up to it America ?
T2