Production Volt

[Snowman]

Welcome humans to Planet Earth and please enjoy you brief stay with us 

[vdk]

The climate is getting warmer... those ice shelves breaking off in Antarctica are a good sign of it...
now how much of an impact we have? idk, but there is one.. it's hard to argue that we're just sitting here driving 300 million cars or w/e in NA... and w/o having an impact on the environment...

what does this have to do with the volt though?

[EV Dan]

Maybe we should put two threads together so the pollutions spam will be cut in half 
Melting Arctic is no good. No more shopping trips across the pond for Palin 

[safristi]

.... ...and eggs.... and Obama ov'r easy........... .& Al Gore hard boiled..... and McCain fries ....... and a side of windmills............. and a Benedict Arnold.... wif a Yanoff to go................

[EV Dan]

2 year wait? There are lots of prototypes and replicas available to public. They are all based on volts, amps and sometimes watts:

[99 Silver]

Perhaps we need global warming (climate change). 

That would delay the onset of the next ice age.  I live on a glacial moraine and if we have another ice age like the last one it would destroy a lot of our cities.

[Vmango]

If you ever hear Clarkson talk about Global Warming as the intro to "Supercar Challenge" you'll crack up.

[EV Dan]

2 year wait? There are lots of prototypes and replicas available to public. They are all based on volts, amps and sometimes watts:

Just notices myself they strapped a couch to it. How redneck can you get? 

[vdk]

^^^^

yea i think they should slam the damn couch and roll on some shiny dubs...

[Leviathan]

Apparently some "unobtanium" was found and GM Chooses LG Chem to Supply Chevy Volt’s Lithium-ion Batteries and Will Build the Packs Themselves.

The plant will be located in Michigan, subject to negotiations with state and local government authorities. Facility preparation will begin in early 2009, with production tooling to be installed mid-year and output starting in 2010.

[Leviathan]

Noisy interview with Bob Lutz here. They talk of the Converj and Lutz says that:

progress in battery technology has been phenomenal in the 2 years we've been working on it

[safristi]

..I Imagine Congress MANDATED he be on LITHIUM................and the other CEO's on VALIUM...............

[EV Dan]

Good choice for the cell supplier, even tho the cells will be somewhat more expensive to import than making them here. Asians have been making LiPO's for much longer so I figure GM was sold on their experience among other things. EVs have been gaining some momentum. The thing that could still kill them off is the price of oil, unless governments decide to "adjust" it with heavy CO2 taxation.

[G35X]

“ Good choice for the cell supplier… “ – DanYanoff

Why did GM shop around for supplier rather than committing themselves to making their own?
BYD started as battery manufacturers and now they are making cars also.  Toyota set up a joint venture battery company with Panasonic. Nissan/Renault with NEC. Mitsubishi with GS Yuasa, Honda with GS Yuasa, Subaru with NEC. VW with Sanyo… They are all spending their own money to secure supply and technology of the most important component of the future automobiles. The United States is trying to lessen foreign oil dependency.  Rather than switching the dependence on oil to batteries, it should establish its own battery R&D and production policy.  It also should have a firm policy in securing such important ingredients as cobalt, neodymium and dysprosium for motor magnets in addition to lithium for the battery.

[Leviathan]

Why did GM shop around for supplier rather than committing themselves to making their own?

It's buried at gm-volt.com but apparently it is because battery (including super-caps) technology is advancing so fast that GM didn't want to be tied to one chemistry or technology. Controlling the assembly of the packs is enough - let third parties do all the heavy lifting and then cherry pick from them when it is time to upgrade the Voltec power storage system.

[EV Dan]

The answer is likely to be more prosaic. GM would love to have a joint venture with somebody as they among the first had figured the trend. But it would require massive investments to be a part of such venture. So despite the fact GM could be getting cells at "factory" price they thought to instead transfer the battery premium to the car sticker price while hoping to hit the market first. They still have a chance, but if BYD gets here it will be difficult for GM to explain to public the difference between a hybrid and a range extender and why there is such a premium.

[Leviathan]

In this article:

GM’s advanced battery strategy

“Our announcements are part of a comprehensive advanced battery strategy for GM that is expanding along two pathways,” Wagoner said. “First, we’re identifying core competencies - such as battery research, development and assembly - and integrating these fundamentals into our product development and manufacturing operations. We believe this will become a competitive advantage for GM, and will be critical to GM’s long-term success. Secondly, we’re building a roster of battery suppliers and academic experts from around the globe, and leveraging their specialized abilities to develop battery chemistries and cell designs, as well as future automotive battery engineers.”

Key elements of GM’s advanced battery strategy include:

* Opening the largest automotive battery lab in the United States (31,000 square feet / 3,251 square meters) that will be capable of testing new energy storage system technologies, as well as lithium-ion and nickel-metal hydride batteries, to accelerate the domestic development of advanced battery technology and lead GM’s network of existing labs in Honeoye Falls, N.Y.; Warren, Mich.; Torrance, Calif.; and Mainz-Kastel, Germany. This new battery lab will be located in Michigan, subject to final negotiations with state and local authorities
* Continuing to ramp-up “in-house” battery-development capability by increasing the staff of GM’s global hybrid, electric vehicle and advanced battery organization to several hundred engineers in 2009, including more than 200 currently dedicated to advanced battery technologies
* Joining with the University of Michigan to create a new automotive advanced battery lab in Ann Arbor, Mich., and a specialized curriculum within U of M’s College of Engineering to develop automotive battery engineers
* Continuing to grow and establish a robust lineup of battery suppliers for cell development and manufacturing and battery integration expertise, with companies such as LG Chem, A123Systems, Hitachi Ltd., Compact Power and Cobasys
* Collaborating with government organizations and industry consortia, such as the U.S. Department of Energy; United States Council for Automotive Research; the United States Advanced Battery Consortium LLC; and Electric Power Research Institute to advance the development of hybrids, plug-ins and electric vehicles, and related electric infrastructure to support those vehicles

[safristi]

 

The answer is likely to be more prosaic. "  isn't that sh*te dangerous...........

......

[Leviathan]

A few instrument shots in What Drivers Will See Inside the Chevy Volt.

[Leviathan]

Assembly of the First True Chevy Volt Integration Vehicles Begins Today

May 27th, 2009 | Posted in: Production, Prototypes

Exactly nine weeks ago we were shown a countdown clock in front of the office of Andrew Farah, the Chevy Volt’s chief engineer.  That countdown clock was clicking off the days until the start of the first Chevy Volt integration vehicle build.  The integration vehicle, or IVer, is an actual full functioning Chevy Volt with authentic exterior, interior, and powertrain.  It is in effect, fully production intent.

Today is the day says Andrew, “We will start general assembly build, what that means is the body in white comes out of the body shop and is positioned at the beginning of this pre-production assembly line over at the Warren Tech center. The whistle blows, all the parts are in line, and they start doing it.”

“The first ones go very slowly (and) we call them template builds and they take about 2 weeks,” he says. “Eventually we’ll be able to crank them out at ten a week.”

“My goal is for fourth of July to be driving more than one,” he says.

GM expects to build over 100 of these integration vehicles before moving to the next stage which are known as validation cars. Those will be assembled in gradually increasing quantities on the actual assembly line at the Detroit-Hamtramck plant in 2010, eventually ramping into the actual saleable production cars.

So despite imminent bankruptcy of General Motors, Volt development goes on.

“The IVer build begins, on-time, today in the general assembly area of our Pre-Production Operations (PPO) in Warren,” confirms GM spokesperson Rob Peterson. “The team’s excited to get the build started, but there’s not much time to celebrate - the journey doesn’t end until Volts are rolling onto dealer lots late next year.”

Thanks to Jim and Mary S for the above photo of the Trasformers Volt they found at the Indy 500.