Chevy Volt Less Than One Year Away
November 18, 2009
Engineers at General Motors Co. working on the 2011 Chevrolet Volt extended-range electric vehicle yesterday told the media development remains on track and that the start of production for GM's game-changing, fuel-saving 4-seater now is less than a year away.
When GM unveiled the Volt at the Detroit auto show in January, 2007, the promise of production seemed tantalizingly far-flung - and improbable, given the myriad technical problems GM admitted had to be solved. But chief engineer Andrew Farah says the accelerated development program is on schedule and GM will begin producing the Volt in less than a year's time.
And despite the recent drama involving the proposed sale of GM's Adam Opel AG European operations and the company's eleventh-hour decision to keep the division, Farah says Opel's version of the Volt, the Ampera, remains on target to hit showrooms about a year after the Volt.
Bill Wallace, engineering group manager, Voltec battery systems, says the first production-ready versions of Volt's critical lithium-ion battery packs - the technology developed by South Korea's LG Chem - will be assembled in GM's new Brownstown, MI, plant beginning in February.
And by next month, GM will have accrued 300,000 miles of Volt durability testing completed in a simulator.
Farah and Wallace say little now need be changed with the battery packs, which have a capacity of 16 kWh and weight about 440 lbs.; the battery pack is designed to hold enough energy to give the Volt a range of at least 40 miles solely on battery power. Driving in excess of the battery's capacity causes the Volt's small 4-cylinder gasoline engine to engage, generating electricity for the car's drive motor that allows the trip to continue. The Volt's batteries are meant to be recharged by plugging in overnight or during other periods of non-use.
Farah would not provide a weight figure for the entire car, saying only "it's still heavier than I want it to be," but added the engineers are certain the Volt will be able to achieve its well-publicized electric-only driving range. - Bill Visnic, senior contributing editor
Photo by GM
Engineers prepare to install the Volt's battery pack into the car's central tunnel.
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