Posted on 01/09/2007 10:06:35 PM PST by BlueSky194
Hybrid Technology Could Reduce Gas Fill-Ups, but Battery-Powered Engine Still Runs Expensive
Chevrolet's new Volt a concept hybrid that could conceivably get hundreds of miles to the gallon
Chevrolet's new hybrid car, called the Volt, has generated a lot of buzz this week at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit.
It's different from the hybrids currently on the market, making it the newest of the new technology in the car market.
Whereas other hybrid cars, such as Toyota's Prius or Ford's Explorer, use a mix of battery power and a conventional gasoline engine to move the wheels of the vehicle, the Volt runs only on electricity.
The electricity is provided by either plugging into a standard wall socket or by fuel which can be gasoline or some more environmentally friendly alternative that recharges the car's battery. General Motors said the Volt's technology could nearly eliminate the need to fuel up at the pump.
"When you get to the end of a range of the battery, which is 40 miles, you just continue to move along, and the only thing that you notice is the engine comes on and it generates more electricity," said John Lauckner, GM's vice president of global programs.
GM said research showed that almost 80 percent of American motorists drive less than 40 miles a day.
"Many, if not most, consumers in the United states would never need to buy gasoline, or buy gasoline very rarely," Lauckner said.
600 Miles on a Tank, but Engine's Expensive Using a full tank of fuel to power the motor, you could conceivably drive from Detroit to New York about 600 miles with no need to stop.
The only problem is that the battery needed to do all this is prohibitively expensive right now. If you wanted to buy this flashy concept version of the Volt today, it would set you back several hundred thousand dollars. So the success or failure of the Volt hinges on GM's ability to mass produce the battery and bring its cost down way down.
"Those batteries have to be developed, and the cost has to come down probably tenfold from where it is now," said Csaba Csere, editor in chief of Car and Driver magazine.
It remains to be seen whether it will ever be realistic to purchase one of these cars at a reasonable price.
GM says it's serious and not just trying to win public relations points.
"We really want to sell a lot of these," said Lauckner.
But the company becomes vague on exactly when you'll be able to buy a Volt.
"It's not as soon as some of us hope. But it's a lot sooner than a lot of people may think," Lauckner said.
That's likely to translate into four years at least
I wonder what makes these batteries so expensive? What are they made of?
Tanstaafl (there ain't no such thing as a free lunch).
Someday GM hopes to figure out how to make a big honkin’ car battery, and figure out how to do it economically, and hope the whole project ends up saving more energy than it consumes, or failing in that, hope no one asks how much energy it takes to build the cars.
It’s called a “concept car” because that sounds better than “something we pulled out of our #ss and hope to someday shove up yours.”
- Scott Adams (Dilbert Blog)
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
Research on battery technology never seems to get funded. Maybe this time.
Fly and rent a car when you get there is probably cost effective when the destination is over a thousand miles away.
The first copies of any sophisticated technology are exceptionally expensive. The first Z80 microprocessor cost almost $2 billion (financed by Exxon). You can have one for about $4 today. It's a matter of amortizing the R&D across a huge volume of sales.
I use off the shelf parts to build computers that go on my research railcars. The CPU board is $800. The ADC board is $750. I'm working on a replacement for measuring the bearing temperatures using a PIC microcontroller. That allows me to measure 8 bearings with a $5 chip. I'm going to replace 16 channels of the 32 channel ADC with a pair of $5 chips. 6 other channels will be replaced with a different PIC. Another $5 chip. Two of the channels require very high bandwidth sampling. Those will be replaced with a stereo ADC designed for DAT recorders with a high speed serial link to a DSP capable microcontroller. The stereo ADC is $7. I'm still collecting parts and designing the final replacement. That is how you progress from an enormously expensive lab model with off the shelf parts to a custom implementation with parts specifically aimed at the objective.
Oh goodie! It doesn't use fuel; it only uses electricity to power the wheels.
But, it uses fuel to MAKE electricity to charge the battery that supplies electricity to the motor that powers the wheels.
I'm glad they explained how it doesn't use fuel to power the wheels, but just to charge the (yet to be invented) battery that is powering the wheels.
Middle men are expensive: Engine, generator, battery, motor; vs engine, transmission. Do they make up the loss via eliminating the transmission? Regenerative braking?
Forty miles...and it is 55 miles north, or 55 miles south to the nearest "market town" that has any big stores. Nope; I'll pass.
Might be, if you don't have to drive 300 miles to get to an airport where you can get a flight, and stay overnight because all the flights leave early in the morning.
[I wonder what makes these batteries so expensive? What are they made of?]
IMHO, it's not that mysterious. The technology is new. That's why plasma TV's were outrageously expensive when they first came out (along with every other new technology). Give it time, and it will enter the mainstream, just like everything else.
Sorry, your explanation is much better. (Sheepish smile). I didn't bother to read all the posts, me bad.
Funniest, most on-target post on FR in 437 years!
Yes, it was funny as hell, but I'd wager he owns oil stock.
Assuming that they are being accurate *and* truthful, then they are incredibly stupid. Ditch the $200,000 battery. Forget the 40 miles of battery power. Now you've got a 560 mile (range) car.
All they have to do is produce a hybrid with today's technology and the stylings of that Volt concept car, and GM can get into the hybrid market in a big way. That would be a logical way to gain market share, something GM brass is apparently disdainful of doing.
I've actually gone 367 miles on a tank of gas. San Diego (Mira Mesa) to the gas station at Glendale, NV. That was in a 1994 Saturn SL2. The date was Dec 16, 2000. I was enroute to my new home in Idaho. I think it has a 16 gallon gas tank. I wouldn't drive that long without a potty/stretch break anyway. A stop at least every 250 miles is a good idea.
My wife was driving the other car and she missed the turn in North Las Vegas where we intended to get fuel/food. I was real worried that we were going to run out of gas in the middle of the cold, dark desert that night. After that near screw up, my policy is to fuel up at the next spot after 250 miles has elapsed.
Am I the only one who thinks this idea of saying a hybrid gets six thousand miles per gallon (or even more if you disconnect the gas tank and run solely on batteries)
IS A BIT MISLEADING???!!!
ping to #5
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