<VV> Electric Power- Chevy Volt - Latest News, No Corvair -at least not yet!

[Sethracer at aol.com]

In a message dated 4/17/2007 10:50:32 A.M. Pacific Daylight Time,  
ChiefTAM at aol.com writes:

Not  really versed in electric vehicles, but since this is a  legitimate  
topic, I will reply and post a question I had on it when I  read the  article 
on the 
Rampside.

I know battery power and technology is the  issue with electric  vehicles.  I 
personally love the looks of  the Chevy Volt, and would  consider one for a 
second car, maybe main  vehicle with the exception of long  trips.  The car 
may 
not be  built because of the lack of development of  lith. ion batteries, or  
something like that.



Latest on Chevy Volt:
 
Chevrolet is showing the “next iteration” of its  Chevrolet Volt concept at 
the Shanghai _auto_ 
(http://www.autoweek.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070417/FREE/70416009/1065#)  show in China this week. Based on the  same E-Flex 
architecture as the plug-in hybrid concept first revealed at the  Detroit show 
in January, this version replaces the gasoline engine/ generator  with a 
hydrogen fuel cell and uses a battery pack only half the size of that in  the 
gas-hybrid model.

Chevy distributed concept drawings of this  fuel-cell version when it debuted 
the Volt in Detroit. Larry Burns, GM vice  president of R&D and strategic 
planning, repeated, in countering charges of  “greenwashing,” that the company 
intends to produce such a _car_ 
(http://www.autoweek.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070417/FREE/70416009/1065#)  but cannot yet state when, since  
development depends on advances in the production of lithium-ion battery  technology. 
GM vice chairman Bob Lutz wrote recently on the corporate FastLane  blog that 
GM is “100 percent committed to making this happen,” and corporate  execs are 
telling us to watch for another step in the development of this E-Flex  
architecture to be revealed at the Frankfurt show in Germany.

While the  original Volt was described as a series hybrid (in which the 
engine is present  only to charge the batteries—all drive is electric), the 
fuel-cell version  operates a little differently. After the battery pack’s 20-mile 
range (half that  of the gas-hybrid model) is exhausted, the Volt’s fuel cell 
not only can charge  the batteries but also can provide electricity directly to 
the drive motors, one  for the front wheels and one “hub motor” in each rear 
wheel. The Volt is still a  plug-in, so the batteries also can be charged off 
the grid. Total range is 300  miles.

The Volt displayed in Shanghai employs GM’s fifth-generation fuel  cell (one 
generation newer than the one in Equinox fuel-cell prototypes that  will hit 
the road later this year), packed into the same space as an Ecotec  
four-cylinder. Hydrogen is stored as a gas in a pair of 10,000-psi tanks that  occupy the 
space formerly used for a gas tank and additional batteries for the  gasoline 
model. Noting that BMW uses cryogenic liquid storage in its Hydrogen 7  
model, Burns said the German firm is driven to do so by the need to store more  
hydrogen onboard. “A fuel cell is twice as efficient as internal combustion, so  
we don’t need liquid storage,” he said. Even BMW’s hyperinsulated tank, he  
noted, is subject to losses as the liquid turns to gas, requiring release of  
pressure from the tank to the atmosphere. There is no such loss when hydrogen 
is  stored in its gaseous state.



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