Years after GM killed the electric car, they are bringing it back. They introduced a new electric car, the Chevrolet Volt, at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit this weekend. Here is what the car looks like:
The only problem is that they still haven’t invented the battery that will run it. This is expected to come in 2010 or 2012. Forbes recently wrote an article on the car. Some excerpts, explaining why this is an improvement over GM’s earlier efforts:
The Chevy Volt is driven by electric motors powered by lithium-ion batteries that are charged by plugging the vehicle into a standard 110-volt socket. But the vehicle has a small gasoline-powered generator on board that can charge the battery on the fly when it gets low. GM calls the generator a “range extender” in an effort to eliminate the biggest drawback to the automaker’s early efforts at electric vehicles–a range of 80 miles or so.
On comparisons to PHEVs (my favorite site on PHEVs is here):
Though the Volt concept is similar to what is known as a plug-in hybrid, an extremely fuel-efficient powertrain being pushed for by environmental groups, it differs in some important respects. A plug-in hybrid, like a traditional hybrid-electric vehicle, has a gasoline motor and electric motor working in tandem to power the vehicle. A plug-in hybrid, however, has a larger battery that can drive the vehicle for longer stretches of time and can be charged by plugging into an electrical outlet.
The Chevy Volt, however, is never powered by mechanical energy–it has no transmission. It is always powered by electricity. The on-board motor is a tiny, 3-cylinder generator that supplies electricity when the battery runs low.
And, addressing the fact that GM dropped the ball on this long ago:
Meanwhile, Toyota, Honda and Ford have sold hundreds of thousands of hybrid electric vehicles collectively, and GM has sold just a handful. It seems hard to imagine now, but General Motors not long ago produced the most environmentally friendly automobile in the world: the electric vehicle called EV-1. Not Toyota, not Honda–General Motors.
What especially burns people inside GM: It had some elements of hybrid technology on the road before any other company. GM’s EV-1 was powered by sophisticated electric motors, and its nickel-metal hydride battery was recharged through regenerative braking. The battery in Toyota’s now-iconic Prius is nickel-metal hydride, it is charged with regenerative braking and it powers electric motors.
GM swears it has learned its lesson. The Chevy Volt, or a vehicle like it, could vault the company back to the front of the technology pack. If, of course, GM can figure out a way to build the thing.
As a fan of transportation electrification, this is a promising development. Of course some caution is warranted, since “the batteries aren’t invented yet”, but it is good to see GM getting back into this arena. Even though you can buy a PHEV in some other countries, PHEVs are presently only available in the U.S. by modifying existing hybrid vehicles (details here). And I firmly believe that in the coming years, the world is going to have to move toward electrification, because liquid fossil fuels will become more scarce/expensive, and biofuels can’t scale up enough to replace our current motor fuel consumption.
A plug-in hybrid, like a traditional hybrid-electric vehicle, has a gasoline motor and electric motor working in tandem to power the vehicle.
…
The Chevy Volt, however, is never powered by mechanical energy–it has no transmission. It is always powered by electricity.
To be precise, the Volt is a hybrid. It’s just a series hybrid, such as has been proposed by RMI for their “hypercar”. All the production hybrids so far (as far as I know) have been parallel systems (i.e. driven by both mechanical and electrical motors).
Ultimately it would be best to drop the ICE entirely in favour of a fuel cell that ran on a renewable liquid fuel such as methanol. From an engineering perspective, do you think the series hybrid is likely to be more or less efficient than a conventional two-motor hybrid? Assume both have the same battery capacity and the ability to run from grid power for some distance before failing over to fuel.
I should have said, a series hybrid using an ICE versus a conventional (ICE/electric) hybrid. I’ll take it for granted a fuel-cell-driven series hybrid would be best.
Ultimately it would be best to drop the ICE entirely in favour of a fuel cell that ran on a renewable liquid fuel such as methanol.
I think as battery technology improves, the ICE will probably be abandoned. I just don’t believe the ICE can compete with the efficiency of the electric motor.
The Chevy Volt, however, is never powered by mechanical energy–it has no transmission. It is always powered by electricity. The on-board motor is a tiny, 3-cylinder generator that supplies electricity when the battery runs low.
The Chevy Volt would in effect be just like the big diesel-electric locomotives pulling trains. Their diesel engines are not connected to the drive wheels either, but instead turn generators that supply electricity for the traction motors in the wheels.
The question is why GM plans to use a gasoline engine instead of a small diesel?
They are betting they can have an economical lithium-ion battery by the time the Volt goes into production, why not also bet on an efficient, clean small diesel engine by 2010 or 2012? Companies such as VW and Pugeot are making them now in Europe, so it shouldn’t be too hard for GM to figure it out.
A whimsical question: We already have the Tesla electric roadster, I wonder why GM didn’t call this effort the “Volta?”
Reader Doggydogworld e-mailed me the following reply to this essay, after he had trouble logging in (I have been having some trouble as well):
Too bad the Forbes writer screwed up by saying the Volt is not a PHEV. Of course it’s a PHEV — in fact it’s a textbook example of a serial PHEV.
Doug, the series vs. parallel argument rages on. The classic argument against serial is efficiency losses as ICE power goes through the generator, power electronics and motor. This path from mechanical to electrical and back to mechanical is less efficient that a straight mechanical drivetrain. Serial also requires more expensive electrical components since they must handle 100% of the car’s power instead of only a portion.
On the other hand, the serial does away with the heavy and expensive transmission and gives the designer freedom to locate the ICE where he pleases. Serials can also use simpler and cheaper ICEs that nonetheless run at higher efficiency because they’re tuned for fixed RPM operation.
It’s possible to argue these points ad infinitum (and some people do). I used to be in the parallel camp, but have come to the following conclusions:
1. Parallel is best for ICE-dominant cars,
2. but serial can make sense for battery dominant designs.
Here’s why. If the car drives on ICE power most of the time, then ICE-to-wheels efficiency is paramount. But if the car drives on batteries 80% of the time then it’s hard to justify the cost and weight of gearboxes and clutches just to squeeze out a little extra efficiency during the 20% of the time you run on ICE power.
Current hybrids are ICE-dominant, and are thus all parallels (or quasi-parallels). Even the least ICE-dominant of all hybrids, the Prius, has a 57 kW ICE vs. a 21 kW battery pack and runs on ICE power almost all the time.
The Volt, on the other hand, is designed to drive on batteries 80% of the time. Even if a mechanical gearbox gave you a 15% efficiency boost during ICE operation, that’s only a 3% overall gain. To get that 3% costs you a lot in money, weight, and complexity. It’s easy to see why Chevy’s designers chose serial. But note that the Saturn Vue plug-in Waggoner announced late last year will use GM’s ‘two-mode’ parallel hybrid transmission. So the debate will continue!
Robert said, “As a fan of transportation electrification, this is a promising development. Of course some caution is warranted, since “the batteries aren’t invented yet”, but it is good to see GM getting back into this arena.”
Robert,
Caution isn’t only warranted while we wait for battery development, but the even bigger issue is:
Will there be enough lithium?
Will there be enough lithium to support a world-class company using great numbers of large, heavy-duty lithium-ion batteries for propulsion? (I’m sure GM hopes the numbers will be in the hundreds of thousands or even millions. And GM isn’t the only auto company with an eye on using lithium-ion batteries. Renault has also announced their intent to develop hybrids using lithium-ion batteries, and does anyone think Toyota, Honda, and all the others won’t be close behind?)
So will there be enough lithium? That’s a thorny question, and the probable answer is troubling:
Lithium is a strategic commodity with most of the world’s supply coming from Chile and Argentina. (Brazil apparently also has some reserves.) World production and demand are now closely balanced and there is little excess supply to meet the rapidly growing demand for the smaller lithium batteries used in consumer electronics. World-class companies such as GM and Renault deciding to use massive amounts of lithium will surely put big smiles on the faces of the lithium speculators of the world. (Are you planning to make a bet on the future price of lithium?)
Part of GM’s challenge will be not only hoping their battery supplier can develop a practical, low-cost, reliable lithium-ion battery (one that doesn’t tend to overheat and explode as Dell, H-P, Apple, and Sony experienced last summer), but also to keep the price of lithium from shooting through the ceiling as they get closer to the rollout date of the Volt. (Could it be that GM has already been secretly buying Chilean lithium mines?)
Let’s also hope Chile, Argentina, and Brazil don’t decide to become the Organization of Lithium Exporting Countries (OLEC) – we’ve already had more than our share of problems with OPEC.
Could it be we will some day curse “Big Lithium” as we now curse “Big Oil” and “Big Ethanol?”
If all the big auto companies go with lithium-ion batteries, can Peak Lithium be far behind? 🙂 (There’s always a problem when everyone suddenly zeroes-in on using the same commodity.)
Cheers,
Gary Dikkers
Gary,
Good point about lithium availability, and thanks for bringing that up. New tech solutions too often overlook the question of what new shortages they will create if scaled.
Question: Can lithium be recovered/recycled from spent batteries? It may not be economic to do so now and/or it may be very energy intensive. But unless the energy cost is completely obscene, then a recovery process would limit the danger of an OLEC cartel.
Can lithium be recovered/recycled from spent batteries? It may not be economic to do so now and/or it may be very energy intensive.
Don’t know, but it’s a good question.
However, even if it is recyclable that would be a factor only after we have several million cars with lithium-ion battery packs on the road and the number has reached stasis.
In the build up from a very few now to those millions, the car companies and their battery suppliers will need virgin lithium.
We must find ways to conserve energy before its too late. Every little effort we do is big enough to make a change and help preserve our planet.
We must be responsible to take care of our environment or say sorry for what we have done, and the effect could be irreversible.
If you want to know more about helping our environronment, check out these links: Green Cars
and Green Fuels
This car is powered off of lithium-ion batteries. The EV1 ran off of large formate Nimh batteries. According to this page:
http://www.ev1.org/chevron.htm
those batteries are being suppressed by Chevron. I really don’t know what to think about that situation but comparing a li-ion car to a Nimh car just doesn’t seem right to me. I’d like to see what could be done with a large format Nimh battery powered car.
More people should learn about this. EV technology is really becoming impressive, like the new Zap that does 0-60mph in 4.8 seconds. Electric is looking more and more like the way to go.