2007 Chevrolet Volt Review

Specifications

If you’ve seen (or even heard of) the movie “Who Killed the Electric Car?”you’ll know that General Motors received the most attention amongst the automakers showcased. The documentary highlights the EV1, a battery-powered, zero emissions vehicle that looked (and went) like a space ship. Tracing the EV1 to its ultimate destiny - the car crusher - you can’t help but feel sad and upset at GM, the big, heartless, cruel profit machine, an antagonist in the fight for clean automobiles. The show fails to mention that the EV1 venture was money losing from the onset, and that each car was subsidized so heavily that a reasonable business case for developing a production version would be nigh unto impossible. GM might have been a target (as compared to Honda, Toyota, Ford and Nissan, all brands that had electrical vehicle programs, and all brands that withdrew and destroyed their respective cars), but they certainly can’t be discredited for bringing back a new zero-emissions electric vehicle, the Chevrolet Volt Concept.

Zero emissions? Well, if you only commute to work and back, not racking up more than 40 miles for the day, then it qualifies for zero emissions. If your commute takes you farther, let’s just say that it’s a far cry cleaner and more fuel efficient than anything else that can feasibly be driven using readily available power sources. How far can it go?This was a question that needed to be addressed, as the biggest problem with the EV1, according to those who lived with it, was the limitations of its range. People don’t like to feel limited, so the first issue that GM addressed was making it capable of driving 40 miles on a single charge, which after researching its EV1 owners and other customers was what it found to be an average person’s commute. Still, a car that can only travel 40 miles at any given time doesn’t even allow for the odd weekend getaway, again limiting its owners’ active lifestyles. No problem, as GM’s engineers actually made it capable of traveling a total of 640 miles without being refueled. Say what? What is its range… 40 miles or 640? Actually, both answers are right. It can go 40 miles on full electric power, resulting in zero emissions, or 640 while be assisted by some other power source; which in the case of the Volt concept, is regular old pump gasoline. Aren’t we talking about a hybrid here? Well, yes and no. If it’s a hybrid, it certainly isn’t anything like any hybrid we’ve seen before. In fact, it’s more like a reverse hybrid. But we’ll delve more into this subject in a minute.

Before we do, the second thing that GM addressed is the Volt’s charging system. With the EV1 and other electric vehicles, special charging stations were needed to convert the owner’s household current from 110 to 220 volts, increasing cost and complexity plus once again limiting where its owners could travel. This meant that EV cars couldn’t travel far from their homes or outside California or Arizona (their original lease areas) where GM had set up various charging stations especially for EV1 owners. GM’s solution was to use standard 110 volt plug-in for North American users, which could be modified to 220 for Europeans, and other markets that run on higher voltage grids. It’s as easy to set up as plugging one end of an extension cord into an exterior house plug and the other into the car. They’ve even made it easy to charge with a socket on each front fender. In total, the Volt takes about six to six and a half hours to charge in 110 “trim”, and if suited up with a 220 volt system, about half that time.

Remember when I mentioned that its ability to drive up to 640 miles between fill-ups,or 40 miles at zero emissions made the Volt appear like a hybrid? In actuality it is, but rather than using an electric motor to assist a gasoline engine, as is the case with all current HEV cars, from the now legendary Prius to GM’s upcoming Dual-Mode Tahoe, the Volt’s main propulsion system is an electric motor, assisted by a small gasoline engine. There’s another difference too. The European city car-sized 1.0-liter three-cylinder turbocharged engine has the unique capability of running on any blend of ethanol-enriched fuel, from 100 percent ethanol, as used in Brazil where GM enjoys very strong market penetration, to E85, the U.S. standard ethanol/gasoline mixture, for a more carbon-neutral waste product. In total, the gasoline engine makes 71 horsepower, but unlike traditional hybrids it’s not linked in any way to a gearbox. Instead, the engine acts as a power source for the car’s 53 kW generator, which in turn charges the car’s 16 kWh Lithium Ion battery pack - one that’s over ten times as powerful as that fitted to the Toyota Prius – that runs down the center of the vehicle, where the driveshaft tunnel would go in a rear-drive car. From there, the car’s electric motor, a 120 kW unit borrowed from the Chevrolet Equinox Fuel Cell Electric Vehicle drives the front wheels. For those that only understand the standard engine figures, the electric half of the equation puts out an admirable 161 horsepower down to the road.

Though the Volt has an internal combustion engine that burns a fossil fuel (which incidentally could be configured for diesel, bio-diesel, liquid hydrogen, or a fuel cell could replace the engine as a power source) GM is keen on defending the Volt as a pure electric vehicle, insisting that the gasoline part of the equation is merely for extending its range. It makes me wonder why GM didn’t put a super-efficient diesel engine under the Volt’s hood. Some of the world’s most efficient vehicles use diesel engines, and with the adaptation of particle filters and low-sulphur diesel, it would have been a good move. But then again, this particular vehicle has been developed for North America, where diesel is less readily available than it is in Europe, for instance. No doubt, GM’s European division would offer diesel to its continental customers if the project ever got the green light for production. Either way, the Volt hardly would suffer in terms of performance. GM estimates that it’s as quick as a Cobalt sedan with the 2.2-liter Ecotec engine and a four-speed automatic, with a 0 to 60 mph time of about 8.5 seconds. That’s almost as quick as the EV1, a much smaller two-seat car, which achieved the same velocity in 7.9 or 8.4 seconds, depending on who you ask - R&T or C&D.

While fully capable for highway merging, the Volt is also nothing but good news in the fight against greenhouse gasses. General Motors made two case scenarios about two hypothetical customers during the vehicle’spresentation. Driver A has a 40-mile commute each day (that works out to 15,000 miles per year). If he/she drove a Volt as opposed to a 30 mile-per-gallon average car (such as a Malibu), he would save 500 gallons of gasoline per year. In fact, provided the vehicle was charged every night, it wouldn’t use any gasoline at all. In this situation alone, 4.4 metric tons of carbon dioxide would be saved during a single year.

If your daily commute isn’t as short as Driver A’s, perhaps Driver B’s round trip is a little more up your alley. GM figures that this person, who commutes 60 miles per day, would get the equivalent of 150 mpg, using electricity for all but the last 20 miles of the commute, which is quite frankly an amazing figure. If he had the capability of plugging in his vehicle at work (assuming he works more than six hours a day) the battery would be charged and ready for the drive home.

If your commute is longer than and involves highway driving, the Volt has enough power from its gasoline engine to not only keep the car happily cruising at 70 mph all day long, but to top up the battery to full charge. And this is where it gets interesting. Rather than just humming along during the entire trip, the engine will shut off once it’s powered the battery packs up, allowing the car to once again run fully on electric energy. When drained down to 30 percent capacity, once again the internal combustion engine would jump back to life and recharge the system; a complete, self-sustaining power generator onboard!

Still with us? Good, because the Volt’s innovative technology has a major effect on the way that the car looks, which we’re now going to get into. The Volt rides on a brand new chassis called E-Flex. In this application it’s about the same size an average C-Segment compact sedan, although it could be any size. One thing’s for sure, though, the Volt doesn’t look anything like an econobox. Rather, it’s sleek, sporty and fashionable. Besides being a concept vehicle where its creators didn’t have to abide by crash protection and bumper legislation, the E-Flex layout is what gives stylists a blank slate to create fairly unrestricted designs. The Volt’s electric motor is low-mounted and located between the front wheels, while the tiny gasoline engine is mounted above and behind it. This means that it’s all free space behind the front bumper, meaning minimal overhangs are needed, granting more cabin space. The Volt’s long wheelbase also meant that Chevrolet’s stylists could give the car a long hood for a sports car like profile.

The sporty theme continues over the low roof, which is more typical of cars like the BMW Z4 and Nissan 350Z (and Chrysler’s 300/Magnum/Charger) than something like this. As cool as it may look, GM knows that there are complaints about visibility on vehicles with this style of window. That’s why they’ve come up with a very clever window design that drops below the shoulder line. From the side, the edge that cuts down from the A-pillar, plus the sweeping shoulder line, makes it appear like a lightning bolt. We’re not quite sure how the windows would work in practice, but the idea is solid. Compared to cars like the Honda EV-Plus and the Ford TH!NK, GM’s decision to make its electric cars look as sleek and as appealing as possible is brilliant. It certainly helps everyone become attracted to such daring yet good-for-you products.

Yes, Chevy’s Volt looks good, has the performance and range people need, incorporates brilliant and effective technology, and a package that can meet the needs of everyday consumers without imposing too many tradeoffs. This sounds like the vehicle necessary to turn around the motoring industry, and proof that GM is a leader in environmental technological development. The big question on everyone’s mind is whether or not they will build it, a question that GM isn’t ready to answer. They’ve made it official that E-Flex and the technology behind the Volt are not just for show; they have real world application and are being developed with the hope and expectation for full-scale production. Right now it comes down to one thing and one thing only, battery life. Current Lithium Ion technology (excuse the pun) won’t allow the ultimate parameters that GM is targeting; a 10 year lifespan and the ability to be recharged 4,000 times. Fortunately they’re working with A123, the Massachusetts-based battery supplier to Black & Decker power tools. The company was started by some MIT professors that came up with a new lithium compound that has shown some of the greatest advancements in battery life. Ironically, Lithium Ion batteries are a great deal more cost effective to produce en masse than Nickel-Metal Hydride batteries, the standard in hybrid electric cars today. Nickel is expensive, while Lithium is relatively cheap. At the rate of battery development, GM is confident that its targets will be met and something like the Volt will make production in the not-too-distant future.

So what are the risks? According to GM’s Vice Chairman Bob Lutz, there’s about a ten percent chance that things could go very wrong with the Volt and its E-Flex technology. “Something related to batteries,” said Lutz, or “thermal events, never fires” he offered jokingly (although stacks of batteries can get hot and cause fires as some Dell customers recently experienced, or “it might get too complex, too expensive, or the battery companies could come to us after three years and tell us they just can’t reach 40 miles”. Of course, anyone in business knows that a ten percent risk is a pretty decent gamble, especially in something that you’re personally involved in, and therefore the powers that be in the world’s largest automaker are expecting positive results.

We can’t help but wish GM success in moving forward on E-Flex development, as the Volt (or at least the Volt’s technology) is right for the times.