Gotta admit that this is a cool idea. GM takes wraps off of Volt electric car | delawareonline | The News Journal The car, he said, will know a person’s normal route home, and if the driver veers off the route, it will calculate whether it needs to start the gasoline engine to recharge the batteries to extend the range, and for how long the engine needs to run.
They're using On-Star for this feature...so it will require that you maintain your subscription for that to work (I would assume). I'm curious to see if Toyota files suit once this comes out...or if GM will seek to license the technology as Toyota has a patent on a very similar technology using GPS to optimize performance of hybrids.
I believe this has been discussed as a possibility on EVs/PHEVs for a while. Most notable example I have seen is in the Project Better Place materials. I believe there have been discussions between PBP and GM, so maybe thats even where its coming from. PBP is primarily a network company, so their bread and butter is all this kind of software for BEVs and PHEVs. Better Place Rob
So the battery pack will hold 8 kWh. My Xebra goes 3 miles per kWh, but the Volt probably will weigh twice as much. However, it will probably have a more efficient motor than my Zebra. So let's say it gets 2 miles per kWh. That gives it an electric range of 16 miles. Weren't they promising 30? That would require it to get 4 miles per kWh, which I don't believe they'll manage to do. So it's going to cost $40,000 and only go 16 miles on a grid charge. Worthless. Assuming they actually go ahead and build it. And why do they need a GPS to decide whether to start the ICE??? Isn't the whole idea to go as far as you can on a charge before starting the ICE??? So why not just run it on the battery until the battery is too low, and then start the ICE? It's a scam, if you ask me.
The sources I've seen say the Volt battery will be 16kWh capacity Daniel. The point of the GPS input is to start running the ICE if you know the battery will be depleted so that it can run within it's most efficient range and offer full power from the battery at all times rather than draining it low then demanding lots of power just as you hit the foot of the mountain you need to climb.
So then Lutz was flat-out lying when he said in the interview that it would cost 80 cents to charge if you are paying 10 cents per kWh. In which case, what else is he lying about?
He may not be lying. Even with a 16kWh pack, likely only 8kWh is allowed to be used in order to prolong battery life. So it will only need to charge 8kWh.
You are referring to a specific characteristic of NiMH batteries: the kind we have in our Priuses. Lithium batteries behave very differently. You still may not want to take them down to zero, but they can use far more than half without compromising battery life. But even if they are limiting the battery to 50%, my point stands: Lutz's numbers are incompatible with the claimed specs.
