GM's Flint Factory for Volt Engine-Generator Gets Post-Bankruptcy Go-Ahead
By John O'Dell October 23, 2009
GM says it will spend $202 million to ready its Flint Engine South site to build the 1.4-liter four-cylinder engines that will be used as on-board generators in the Chevrolet Volt extended-range hybrid .
The company originally had planned to spend $359 million to build a new factory on a nearby site at its Flint campus, but its reduced financial circumstances have led it to settle for renovation of an existing plant there.
As has always been the plan, the factory also will build the engines for use in a conventionally-powered small car, the Chevrolet Cruze, which is scheduled to launch in the U.S. in late spring next year. The Volt won't go into production until almost the end of 2010.
The Flint plant, which GM first announced last July, then suspended amidst the financial tumult that led the the automaker's short bankruptcy and taxpayer rescue, is slated to produce 40 engines per day when production starts late next year. Production will hit 800 engines a day by fall 2011, GM officials said.
Pre-production Chevrolet Volt (left) on display at GreenHouse in Virginia; Studio shot of Chevrolet Cruze compact (right).
Because the cars will launch before the factory's running at full capacity, engines for both - a turbocharged 1.4-liter for the Cruz and a normally aspirated version for the Volt - initially will be imported from a GM plant in Austria, a company spokesman said.
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I am still really curious how they will make this car acceptable to drive once the battery is depleted. Basically all you have for power is the output of a 1.4 litre engine minus the losses from spinning a generator to create the power for the electric motor.
Doesn't seem like much for a heavy car.
Just to keep up with traffic it will likely have to roar away at it's power peak near 100% of the time.
Odd, the cruze is supposed to go on sale in spring of 2010. how is the engine plant not going into production until late 2010?
They will import i-4 engines from Austria 'til then. Don't forget, GM's had a ton of financial woes in last few years, simply wasn't able to afford to outfit a new engine plant until now.
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