DAR
Oh how they like to tease:
***
The Rebirth of the Electric Car
GM'S CHEVY VOLT CONCEPT -- IT'S `NOT A SCIENCE-FAIR PROJECT' -- TO DEBUT AT MOTOR CITY SHOW
By Matt Nauman
Mercury News
The company that killed the electric car, at least according to the makers of a popular 2006 documentary film, intends to announce today that it's getting back into that business.
General Motors will unveil the Chevrolet Volt concept today in Detroit. While not a pure electric like the EV1 that GM leased to about 800 people from 1996 to 2004, the Volt relies on batteries and electric motors for nearly all of its propulsion. It can be charged at home using a household outlet and includes a tiny turbo-charged gasoline engine to help keep the batteries charged.
It's a concept rather than a working vehicle, and GM says the battery technology to make it happen is still three to five years away, but it's ``not a science-fair project,'' said Jon Lauckner, the company's vice president of global program management.
The Volt will be one of more than 50 new production or concept cars unveiled today through Tuesday at the North American International Auto Show. The Detroit event is the most significant U.S. auto show and a bellwether of what we'll be driving in 2007 and beyond.
This year's lineup ranges from redesigned minivans and the Viper sports car from Dodge to mainstream models such as the Chevrolet Malibu, the Ford Focus and the Toyota Tundra pickup.
The Volt announcement comes as GM tries to improve its reputation as an environmentally sensitive automaker, a view many car buyers have of Toyota and Honda.
GM has delivered more than 400 diesel-electric hybrid buses to 33 North American cities as well as to Yosemite National Park. It sells one mild hybrid that can't run solely on electricity, the Saturn Vue Green Line, but has said it will offer many more fuel-efficient hybrids in the next few years. It will begin operating a 100-vehicle test fleet of hydrogen-fuel-cell vehicles later this year. And, at the recent Los Angeles Auto Show, GM Chairman Rick Wagoner made his company the first to pledge to build and sell a plug-in hybrid, which could be charged at home and offer greater fuel economy than a regular hybrid.
He didn't say when the plug-in hybrid, also based on the Saturn Vue, would arrive.
The Volt is a step beyond that model.
Some Volt drivers, if they drive 40 miles a day or less, ``may never go to the gas station,'' said Scott Fosgard, a GM spokesman.
Someone with a 60-mile round-trip commute who charged the Volt at home would get the equivalent of 150 miles per gallon, GM said.
The Volt ``reflects some kind of change of heart at the very highest levels of GM,'' said Bradley Berman, editor of hybridcars.com. ``This idea of an electric car that has extended range is really smart.''
Still, he noted, ``the Achilles' heel of this initiative is its dependence on a breakthrough in battery technology. Many industry observers believe that breakthrough is coming, but nobody can say when.''
As explained by GM, the Volt relies on a chassis that's flexible enough to accommodate a family of propulsion systems, all revolving around electricity. Besides the electric motor and battery pack, it could use a small internal-combustion gasoline engine, or one that uses an ethanol blend, or biodiesel, or even a fuel cell that uses hydrogen.
It can be plugged into a household outlet, getting a full charge in about six or seven hours. Officials at Tesla Motors, the San Carlos electric-car company, and proponents of plug-in hybrid vehicles say electricity costs much less than gasoline.
The Volt isn't a hybrid, Lauckner said, because the gas engine activates only ``when the battery pack is exhausted. People want to say this is a hybrid. It's pure electric drive.''
In the Volt, said engineer Nick Zielinski, the powertrain includes an electric drive motor; a lithium-ion battery pack; a generator; a 1.0-liter, three-cylinder, turbo-charged gas engine; and a home plug-in charger.
That result, said Tony Posawatz, a GM vehicle line director, is a car that carries four or more passengers, has a 40-mile range on pure electricity and a 640-mile total range.
That tops the EV1, the innovative vehicle that was the subject of director Chris Paine's documentary. His film ``Who Killed the Electric Car?'' suggested automakers such as GM, oil companies and the government all worked to make sure electric vehicles didn't succeed.
Since then, however, higher gas prices, the war in Iraq and the advent of hybrids all have pushed greener vehicles into the spotlight.
Much work remains to be done, GM officials say, although they wouldn't offer a timetable. Lauckner said a production version of the Volt will arrive ``not way, way out there in the future.'' Battery development is a key, and GM suggests a suitable unit might be ready for production in 2010 to 2012.
the rest...
