Not a Sensible Shoe

General Motors Corp. learned many painful lessons from its billion-dollar misadventure with its first electric car, the EV-1.

Among them: Consumers won't buy an electric car if it has limited range and limited room and runs out of juice suddenly after climbing a hill or turning on the air conditioning.

Designers learned a hard lesson, too: No matter how environmentally friendly a vehicle is, if it looks weird, people won't buy it.

The upside of this school of hard knocks is that it led to the visually stunning Chevrolet Volt concept, a plug-in hybrid-electric vehicle (PHEV) introduced at the North American International Auto Show. It was a show-stopper as much for its looks as for its innovative powertrain.

The Volt can be fully charged by plugging it into a standard 110-volt outlet for about six hours, and it can drive about 40 miles (64 km) under purely electric power. When the battery is depleted, unlike with the EV-1, a 1L 3-cyl. turbocharged engine acts as a generator to replenish the batteries enroute.

“If you lived within 30 miles (48 km) from work and charged your vehicle every night when you came home or during the day at work, you would get 150 mpg (1.6L 100/km),” GM Vice Chairman Bob Lutz says.

He adds that because more than half of Americans have a commute within the Volt's all-electric range, “You might never burn a drop of gas in the life of the car.”

Skeptics point out the technology on which the Volt is based — a large lithium-ion battery that is cost-effective and durable enough to withstand a rigorous duty cycle of charging and discharging — has not yet been invented.

Nevertheless, GM recently announced two supplier contracts to develop Li-ion batteries for the Saturn Vue Green Line PHEV, which GM has committed to building, possibly by 2010.

One battery contract is with Saft Advanced Power Solutions LLC, a joint venture between Johnson Controls Inc. and Paris-based Saft Groupe SA; the other is with Michigan-based Cobasys, a JV between Chevron Technology Ventures LLC, a subsidiary of Chevron Corp., and Energy Conversion Devices.

Some experts predict such advanced batteries could be production-ready by 2010 or 2012.

Despite the vagaries of the battery technology, GM executives make it clear the Volt is not “just a science project” built for show, and its sophisticated design — based on an upcoming mass-production GM platform — underscores the point.

The Volt's E-Flex platform is an adapted version of GM's future Global Compact Vehicle Architecture (Delta) that will underpin the next-generation Chevy Cobalt and HHR.

GM managers say they want to leverage the auto maker's global manufacturing capability to produce the Volt in several different regions, rather than produce a low-volume niche model solely for the U.S.

The E-Flex architecture “strikes at the heart of some of the paradigms that govern this industry,” Jon Lauckner, GM vice president-global program management, says.

The Volt's 12-gallon (45L) tank can hold gasoline or biofuels such as E85, a gasoline/ethanol blend. The architecture also is designed to accommodate a hydrogen fuel-cell-powered version of the powertrain.

“If it's in Europe, it could be biodiesel; if it's in Brazil, it could be E100 (100% ethanol), Lauckner says. “GM is committed to making this a volume play globally.”

GM engineers say the per-mile cost for electrical power is roughly one third the price of gasoline.

But the innovation does not stop at the Volt's powertrain. It uses a variety of ingenious materials, technologies and ideas.

Anne Asensio, executive director-GM Design, and the leader of the team that created the Volt concept, says the car is an advanced technology vehicle designed to use little fuel, but she did not want that idea to translate into a dowdy design.

After soliciting ideas from GM's studios around the world, a team from GM's U.K. studio did most of the creative work on the interior, and the Michigan advanced design team executed the exterior.

The result was a vehicle designed for an “urban-centric lifestyle” small enough to fit in anywhere in the world, with dimensions similar to a Chevrolet Cobalt but wide and low with large 21-in. wheels.

“What's beautiful about the proportions is that when you think about some of the competitors out there, you tend to think of those vehicles as ‘the sensible shoe,’” says Bob Boniface, design director-GM Design, and lead exterior designer.

“But the Volt is different. It's something one would buy because it is so compelling to look at, and the fact that it has the potential to never burn any gasoline — that's just a bonus,” Boniface adds.

The auto maker also took on GE Plastics as a strategic partner to supply key materials technology and design engineering support. The car's curvaceous body panels and pedestrian-friendly impact energy absorbers are made of GE's proprietary Valox iQ and Xenoy iQ polyethylene terephthalate resins, which are derived from recycled plastic bottles.

Its roof and some windows are made from clear lightweight GE polycarbonate resins as well, in place of heavier glass.

“On the Volt, the fender, window glazings, instrument panel and steering wheel can each offer from 30% to 50% weight reduction per part,” says Amanda Roble, executive director for GE Plastics' Automotive business. “The wire running throughout the Volt is made from non-halogenated GE plastics and reaches an approximate 25% weight reduction compared to traditional wire in automobiles,” she adds.

The interior, which seats four instead of two, like the old EV-1, has a techy look but also is said to demonstrate environmental responsibility through the use of lightweight, recyclable materials. The instrument panel topper and steering wheel both are made from recyclable plastics.

The centerpiece of the interior is a dual-mode instrument cluster that provides two visual levels of vehicle information to the driver. The first level, configured like a conventional analog instrument cluster, provides traditional displays including gauges for fuel level, speedometer, odometer, battery level and the transmission “PRNDL” indicator.

However, the second level of information — color and animated data related to the car's propulsion system — hovers in front of the traditional analog gauges like a hologram.

Using invisible, fluorescent inks that are printed on the transparent screen creates the special effects. When illuminated by an ultraviolet laser projector behind the instrument cluster, the inks become excited and provide 4-color illumination and animation. It looks like it belongs in a science fiction movie.

If this is a sensible shoe, we'll take two pair.
— with Scott Anderson