General Motors killed the electric car. In late 2003, they dumped their popular EV-1 in an act of corporate chicanery so dramatic it was made into a movie. Only 800 of the cars were driven by lucky customers chosen from a waiting list– when the leases were up, GM destroyed every working model. Now there appears to a glimmer of intelligence emerging from GM that could make up for their boneheaded mistake.
Toyota is currently leading the energy-efficient car market with the Prius, the world’s first commercially mass-produced and marketed hybrid automobile. The Prius is not a true electric car, because it needs gasoline to run– you can’t plug it in to recharge the batteries.
GM could be producing affordable, efficient electric cars today, and we could be driving them. The EV-1 never needed a tune-up or an oil change. You just rotated the tires and checked the brakes. Instead, this week at the Detroit Auto Show, GM is unveiling a concept car called the Chevy Volt. It’s at least five years away from production, but GM insists the Volt isn’t just a PR ploy. “This is no science-fair project,” says GM vice president Jon Lauckner. “We’re deadly serious about this.”
From Newsweek:
If the Volt does hit the streets, here’s how it will work: You’d plug your car into a regular 110-volt outlet in your garage every night. When you head off for work in the morning, you could go for 40 miles on pure electricity, without that little engine kicking in to recharge the batteries. So if your daily commute is under 40 miles, as is the case for most Americans, you’d never burn a drop of gas.
If you have a longer commute, the Volt then becomes the ultimate gas miser. Let’s say you live 30 miles from your job, so your daily round-trip is 60 miles. That means the Volt will run 40 miles on pure electricity and 20 miles on kilowatts generated by its little gasoline engine. The net mileage: 150mpg. That is, unless you have some place to plug in while you’re at work. That lithium-ion battery gets fully powered up in about six hours. So if you recharge while you work, you’ll never burn any gas.
#1 by Caveat on January 8, 2007 - 9:34 pm
Kool, I want one of them…but…will it tow a boat to Powell?
#2 by one small voice on January 8, 2007 - 10:35 pm
And in the event of a power outage? Sleep in baby, sleep in.
#3 by Grey on January 9, 2007 - 9:42 am
So this is like an hybrid but with a more powerful electric motor and a weaker gasoline engine. However, I cant see how this huge piece of metal can be efficient. Efficient cars are efficient because they spend less energy, not because they use energy in the form of electricity.
Dear GM, Instead of making an electric car, why don’t you make something small, something cheap, beautiful and smart. Don’t make a bulky an innefeficient electric car, don’t make it so GM.
#4 by glenn on January 9, 2007 - 12:00 pm
Grey, currently the ICE(internal combustion engine) is only about 35% efficient in terms of the “work” that is realized from the internal potential of the fuel. What they are doing is utilizing a single speed small engine which maximizes efficiency process and converts the mechanical energy into electricity, the electric motor utilizes energy then in a low torque manner and runs a small generator, without the waste that variability in engine speeds that is inherent in the ICE.
Better yet is the fuel cell, which can realize up to 80% + in realizing as electricity the work potential of the fuel(measured in calories), but that costs, and is still very expensive.
This is a stop gap, the real value is burning tons of coal in Utah, and then being to be able to plug in your car in Burbank, and feel green about it.
It won’t pull anything but you and some luggage for about 40 miles. We can drag it to Powell with the F-350 dually though and drive it around Wahweap at the campground, go to Page, that would be after, jet skiing of course.
#5 by ric on January 9, 2007 - 1:41 pm
and what happens with the Roadster, 100% electric, of Tesla Motors company?
#6 by glenn on January 9, 2007 - 2:03 pm
I don’t know, would like to see it, where is it, did it go? Can anyone replicate the process whereby it worked. Does it exist, and on and on… if it did we would be driving a tank with it or something.
#7 by Gauldar on January 10, 2007 - 5:32 am
This looks like a move of desperation from GM. If they never killed off their electric car, they wouldn’t be having the trouble they have now. Currently they are trying to push their trucks and SUVs, but having trouble with the currant standards for vehicle emissions. I see this move as an attempt to atone for their mistakes, and continue in a direction they should have continued years before. If they don’t make changes and follow suit with currant technology, they are going keep eating the dust from Toyota and Honda.
#8 by Budross Gali on January 10, 2007 - 3:00 pm
why is the fuel cell so expensive? Can ANYONE clear that up for me?
#9 by Richard Warnick on January 10, 2007 - 4:07 pm
According to wikipedia, there are no easy answers regarding hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. As near as I can figure, it’s still very expensive to make fuel cells tough enough to survive the vibrations encountered on the road. Also, they don’t work when the temperature drops below the freezing point of water. Another problem is energy efficiency: it takes a lot of energy to produce hydrogen for fuel. Researchers can probably find a way to overcome all but the energy efficiency problem.
#10 by glenn on January 10, 2007 - 8:26 pm
Fuel cells are expensive because the scale of production is small, and as yet you must also pay the very high price for a reformer. This is due to there being virtually no infrastructure for liquid hydrogen refueling. This device cracks hydrocarbon fuel on board, and can be described as a mini refinery. It strips hydrogen for use in your fuel cell. If you utilize propane or other compressed hydrocarbon gases, it is not as complicated, but they too must be rendered.
If you wonder why 350 billion have gone to iraq and oil prodcution exploration, just call it inertia, and some special interest.
Fuel cells are pretty tough now, Ballard fuel cell has an 85k watt unit(100 hp) that is capable of operating in cold temps, they have been able to do this in space, so down here is doable. You would need 2 of these to satisfy any possibility of dragging the boat to Powell. The requirements for the units are extreme places with no infrastructure support, and for that, due to their simplicity(one moving part, a fan) the are highly sought after for power units. You need military kind of money to buy one right now. Micro diesels have slowed this process to market down, as Europeans are building micro diesel vehicles that can easily compete with hybrids, and can even give fuel cell supporters pause.