MotorAuthority

GM will take shortcuts to bring Volt to market

Posted Tue Feb 12 2008 12:04 PM by James Martinez

GM is determined to keep its promise of delivering the Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrid car by the end of the decade but unfortunately it will likely have to cut a few corners to get there. Already we’ve seen officials raise the car’s expected price tag, from an initial $30,000 to about $35,000, and even at this point there may have to be some major subsidies. Now officials are claiming that first-generation Volt models will be using redundant electronic systems because there’s not enough time to engineer new ones.

Some of the redundant features include things like windshield wipers and high-powered audio systems. The older systems will be eliminated later, probably in the second generation of the Volt, after engineers have had time to rework them for the new world of electric propulsion. "Because we're going as fast as we're going to get this to market, some of the systems will have to be redundant," GM spokesman Dee Allen revealed to Canwest News.

In ordinary petrol and diesel cars, these electrical systems draw power directly from the engine. This power can be enormous, especially in the case of modern stereo systems, which in a car with an electrical propulsion system will mean a greatly reduced range per charge whenever the devices are in use.

"What we've ended up doing is having to re-engineer things most people take for granted," Allen said. The engineers have no doubt they can rework the electrical utilities of the car to meet modern demands, but not in the timeframe given to them by GM vice chairman Bob Lutz to bring Volt to market.”

Story Tags:

• Chevrolet
• Hybrid-Electric

Reader Comments

• Tue Feb 12 2008 12:43 PM

  Gus says

  And with GM announcing it's huge losses and the buyout offer of every single hourly employee it has, things are not looking good...

• Tue Feb 12 2008 2:07 PM

  chris says

  i dont see what the problem is with what theyre saying... yeah modern stereo's take 200 watts to run.. but for this car to be comparable to other small cars.. the electric drive will need a capacity for 100,000 watts,.. or more. window motors, stereos, and wiper motors are only a tiny fraction of the power draw of a car. when you turn up your stereo, does the car have less power? when you turn on your head lamps, does the car have any noticeable difference in power? no.
  
  theres 746watts in one HP. a small car like this CRUISING will need at least 30hp IN THE CITY just to cut through the wind resistance. you do the math. thats over 20,000 watts of power.
  
  
  all their saying is this car isnt exactly going to be the pinnacle of electrical efficiency... theyre working their butts off to make the car WORK... theyre just going to throw in normal inefficient window motors and stereos. who cares. even if they were to delay production by a year to make all the electrical accessories lower power items... ud only gain a couple miles on the 40 mile battery.
  
  this thing is still going to work. there is no straw that breaks the camels back.

• Thu Jun 5 2008 4:54 PM

  janet says

  Regardless of the engine's success chevy makes an ugly car. And they are telling everyone that the second generation will be better. Better to wait until a Japanese car maker comes out with one. Just the chevy and ford symbols are ripe with white trash baseball games and the like. There is no room for a future of red neck style. The future belongs to Japan in the car market.