GM Plugs Its Chevy Volt Hybrid, but Will It Be Road-Ready In Time?
It's the battery, stupid...
GM Plugs Its Chevy Volt Hybrid, but Will It Be Road-Ready In Time?
- SPEED RACER: The Chaparral Volt racer is GM West Coast Advanced Design Studio's concept vehicle entry in the 2008 Los Angeles Auto Show Design Challenge competition. The concept design was created for the 2025 revival of the Los Angeles Times Grand Prix, which is to address clean, renewable and abundant California resources... Courtesy of GM
- TRANSMISSION TUNNEL: A General Motors battery engineer positions a prototype E-Flex battery pack for loading into a test vehicle at the GM battery lab. The T-shaped battery pack is buried deep inside the vehicle—in the center "transmission tunnel" and below the rear seat—to improve safety in collisions... Courtesy of GM
- POWER SOURCE: Each lithium-based cell in the Volt's battery pack is enclosed in a flat, laminated aluminum film pouch that is about half the size of a legal notebook pad. Inside, a liquid electrolyte bathes sheetlike positive and negative electrodes, which are separated by a permeable membrane... Courtesy of GM
- WHAT A DRAG: Volt designers and engineers are working to maximize the car's battery-only range by reducing losses that rob the system of power. For example, intense digital simulation and 700 hours of wind tunnel tests have given the Volt the best aerodynamic drag coefficient ever for a GM car—except, that is, for the Volt's forebear, the company's ill-fated EV-1 battery-electric vehicle... Courtesy of GM
- CHARGING INTO THE FUTURE: Each night, Chevrolet Volt owners will be expected to recharge their car batteries with cheap, off-peak utility power from an electric socket. GM engineers estimate that fully recharging the 400-pound (180-kilogram) battery pack will take less than three hours using a 220-volt outlet or under eight hours using a typical 110-volt household outlet... Courtesy of GM
