GreenBriefs: GM Says Gen-2 Mild Hybrids Coming, Panelists Insist ICE Will Dominate, DuPont Does Li-Ion Battery Separators, GM Wants Volt MPG Label
By Scott Doggett August 4, 2010
General Motors executive director of hybrid and electric powertrain engineering Larry Nitz says GM palms to bring back mild hybrids.
GM discontinued mild hybrids - which unlike full hybrids cannot propel a vehicle on electric power alone, but rather typically rely on an automatic engine stop-start system, electric-motor assist and regenerative braking- last year.
Nitz said GM will offer at least one mid-sized sedan in North America and one in China beginning in the fall of 2011, and that they will feature a second-generation mild-hybrid system that will provide better fuel savings.
He wouldn't discuss the vehicles in greater detail, except to remind that the first-generation mild-hybrid system was available in China on the Buick LaCrosse.
A panel of powertrain executives say conventional internal-combustion gasoline engines will continue to dominate the market for the next 20 years despite the buzz surrounding alternative vehicles.
Speaking at the Center for Automotive Research Management Briefing Seminars in Traverse City, MI, Ford's vice president of global powertrain engineering Barb Samardzich said she's been telling the automaker's young engineers that improving gasoline engines "will be a great career going forward."
Johannes-Joerg Rueger, senior V.P. of diesel engineering for global parts supplier Robert Bosch, said internal-combustion engines will hold 80 percent of the market at least through 2020.
GM's Nitz, agreeing with Samardzich and Rueger, said "the conventional technologies we have today are a clear path through 2016." That said, GM, Ford and Bosch are pursuing alternative power technologies.
DuPont has introduced the first nanofiber-based polymeric battery separator that boosts the performance and safety of lithium-ion batteries.
DuPont says the Energain battery separators can increase power 15 to 30 percent, boost battery life by up to 20 percent and improve battery safety by providing stability at high temperatures.
With more battery power, drivers of electric-drive vehicles can travel farther on a single charge and accelerate more quickly and safely. And for automobile and battery manufacturers, more battery power can reduce the number of batteries typically required in today's hybrid and electric vehicles.
DuPont has begun construction on a facility in Chesterfield County, VA, to manufacture the product for development and commercial sale. The plant is expected to open early next year and supposedly will initially be able to provide enough material to supply up to 20 percent of today's hybrid and EV needs.
GM executives say they are anxiously awaiting how the government will rate the fuel economy of the Volt extended-range plug-in hybrid, which goes on sale later this year.
As Green Car Advisor reported last week and GM reiterated Tuesday, the automaker is in talks with the EPA about the Volt's mileage rating.
As you may recall, the automaker spent millions of dollars last summer advertising that it expected the Volt to carry an EPA estimated efficiency label of 230 mpg. You may also recall thinking When pigs fly! upon seeing those ads.
GM's Nitz said this week that 230 "will never show up on the label." Persons still scanning the sky for porcine flight patterns can stop that. Nitz said GM has submitted a confidential rating proposal to the EPA, but he declined to disclose it.
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