GENERAL Motors marked its 100th anniversary this week by officially unveiling the production version of Chevrolet’s Volt plug-in hybrid sedan, which it says will lead the company into its next century of car-making.
Bearing only a vague resemblance to the low-slung concept that emerged under the same name at the 2007 Detroit motor show, the production Volt and its preliminary specifications were presented in Detroit on September 16 by GM chairman and CEO, Rick Wagoner.
The road-going Volt surfaced more than a week ago when pictures of the vehicle, in each case partially obscured by senior GM officials, were made available for 12 minutes on GM’s media website in what appeared to be either a poorly handled media release or a deliberate pre-publicity “leak” ahead of this week’s official unveiling. The result of an official investigation into the matter by GM is yet to be announced.
“Revealing the production version of the Chevy Volt is a great way to open our second century,” said Mr Wagoner this week. “The Volt is symbolic of GM’s strong commitment to the future – just the kind of technology innovation that our industry needs to respond to today’s and tomorrow’s energy and environmental challenges.”
GM’s belated answer to Toyota’s super-successful Prius hybrid, the third generation of which will emerge at the 2009 Detroit show next January and should also eventually feature a “plug-in” recharge function, will enter production at the company’s Detroit-Hamtramck manufacturing facility – “subject to GM successfully negotiating satisfactory government incentives”.
The 2011 Volt is due for release in the US in late 2010 and has been earmarked as a model for global consumption - priced around the same as the current Prius, which costs $37,400 in Australia.
Like the Prius hatch, the Volt sedan is a relatively conventional small family car that, in this case, rides on the same next-generation front-drive Delta platform that will underpin GM’s new Astra, which is reported to have been developed to accommodate fuel cell technology.
It measures 4404mm long (40mm shorter than the current Prius), 1798mm wide (73mm wider), 1430mm high (60mm lower) and rides on a 2685mm wheelbase (15mm shorter). The four-seater Volt, however, offers a boot capacity of just 301 litres, compared to 456 litres for the five-seater Prius.
Other vital statistics include the fitment of MacPherson struts front suspension, a “compound crank twist” solid rear axle, four-wheel disc brakes with full regenerative function, electric power steering and 17-inch forged alloy wheels with special low rolling resistance tyres.
Toyota announced last week that it has begun UK public-road testing of a plug-in system for the Prius and expects to bring forward delivery of its plug-in system from 2010 to late 2009, but GM product chief Bob Lutz has been vocal in his claims that GM and Toyota are not in a race to produce the world’s first rechargeable car because the two designs are so fundamentally different.
Toyota’s plug-in Prius is expected to debut globally in small numbers in late 2009 - around the same time large test fleets of the production Volt will hit the road.
“A plug-in hybrid with a limited range is a very nice thing to have. It’s wonderful that Toyota is working on this. If they have some test fleets out next year that's great. But it’s not the same thing as a Chevy Volt, which is not a plug-in hybrid,” said Mr Lutz on August 28.
“After eight or 11 miles (13 or 18km) it (the Prius) reverts to being a completely normal gasoline-electric hybrid, which means you get about a 25-30 per cent fuel saving, but the point is they do burn fuel.”
Toyota has not revealed its electric-only traveling distance target for the plug-in Prius, which currently employs a 1.5-litre petrol engine that both drives its front wheels and recharges its nickel-metal-hydride battery pack for a limited electric-only range of up to about 18km. The next Prius will improve dramatically on that.
The Volt, meantime, will employ a new 16kWh lithium-ion battery pack that will enable the Volt to travel at least 65km when fully charged.
After that, a small E85-compatible petrol engine turns itself on and charges the electric motor enough to extend its range - but not to charge its battery, as in the Prius, returning fuel consumption of as little as 1.5 litres per 100km. The current Prius officially averages 4.4L/1]00km.
The Volt's battery pack contains 220 lithium-ion cells and delivers the equivalent of about 111kW and 370Nm of instant torque, for a claimed top speed of 160km/h.
GM says that, unlike the Prius, the Volt uses electricity to move the wheels at all times and speeds and, if driven less than 65km a day and recharged nightly, the Volt promises electric-only, emissions-free operation indefinitely.
Once depleted, however, the Volt’s battery needs to be charged via a main outlet, which GM says takes less than three hours with a 240-volt outlet or about eight hours with a 120-volt outlet – less if the battery has not been fully depleted.
According to GM, at US electricity prices (about 10 US cents per kWh), the Volt costs about 80 cents per day to fully charge at peak rates – about one-sixth that of a conventional petrol-powered vehicle.
“When the battery’s energy is depleted, a gasoline/E85-powered engine generator seamlessly provides electricity to power the Volt’s electric drive unit while simultaneously sustaining the charge of the battery,” says GM.
“This mode of operation extends the range of the Volt for several hundred additional miles, until the vehicle’s battery can be charged.”
GM says the finished Volt, which is claimed to herald “a new era of electrification of the automobile by creating a new class of vehicle known as the Extended-Range Electric Vehicle (E-REV)”, is one of the most aerodynamic designs it has ever produced following hundreds of hours of wind tunnel testing.
It claims it will offer the space, comfort, safety and amenity expected of a small four-passenger sedan, with a variety of interior colour, trim and lighting options never before offered in a Chevrolet sedan.
Features include a standard seven-inch touch-sensitive “infotainment center” with integrated gear-shifter, a driver-configurable liquid crystal instrument display, Bluetooth connectivity for phone and music functions, and an optional navigation system with onboard hard drive for map and music storage.
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