gm confident in volt launch after battery tests - 3.7 volt lithium ion battery
Dearborn, Michigan (Reuters)-
GM believes it will be able to provide all
GM Vice Chairman Bob Lutz said Monday that the electric Chevrolet Volt is scheduled and is about to be named after the supplier of key batteries for the car.
"I want to say that there is little reasonable doubt in our mind that will work," said Lutz, head of automotive development at GM.
General Motors (GM) is designing Volt to travel 40 miles by battery alone, but some industry rivals, and even some executives from automakers, question next-
Lithium generation-
Ion batteries are expected to produce highly anticipated cars in 2010.
After a speech in Detroit, Lutz told Reuters
Engineers at GM say the commercial group in the region has shown that the battery pack currently being tested can power the company's target mileage and higher mileage vehicles.
"They usually have children in their 30 s and 40 s, and they go up the hill with it and everything," Lutz said . ".
GM's Volt is expected to be the first Volkswagen
The market is charging cars, which will put the United States in trouble. S.
Automakers are ahead of rivals such as Toyota in a key energy-saving technology, while sales of mainstream trucks and SUVs have fallen.
The contract to build the power supply for Volt has also become a crucial early test designed to adjust the batteries widely used in consumer electronics to drive the car.
Lutz said he drove a 15-mile test vehicle with a Volt battery pack on Monday morning as part of a regular review of Volt development efforts with gm ceo Wagner and COO Fritz Henderson
GM was unusually open in its efforts to develop the Volt, which had previously shown the modified Chevrolet Malibu sedan it used on the Michigan test Trail to check the real situation
World performance of batteries designed for Volt.
"They are still in the old Malibu body, so they still look pitiful, but the beauty of that car is driving," Lutz said . ".
"It never changes, you just scream in total silence," he said in describing his test drive on Monday . ".
A department in South Korea's LG Chem said it was ready to supply Volt after manufacturing a third battery
The prototype of the car's generation battery.
Continental, a German supplier of auto parts, is also competing for Volt battery contracts, which employ battery technology used by privately held A123 Systems.
GM is designing the voltage to charge on a standard socket.
It will also capture energy from the brakes like a traditional hybrid and has the ability to turn on
The motherboard engine acts as a backup generator, powering the battery over 40 miles of travel.
Environmental activists have promoted the development of this "plug-and-play.
Reduce oil consumption and vehicle emissions.
Delegates said the technology could also help GM meet higher federal fuel economy standards.
Engineers at GM are working on how to smoothly move from Volt's battery to on-
Board engine, something designed to start when the battery runs out.
"It's all working, it's just a transition from battery power to internal combustion engines," Lutz said . ".
"They said it was still very noisy and a little rough.
But hell, we still have more than a year and a half to solve this problem.
Asked about the closely watched contract, Lutz said GM was about to appoint a supplier for the contract, but declined to comment further.
Toyota said it will start producing lithium-ion batteries in 2009 through a joint venture with Japan's Panasonic electric appliance industry.
The automaker, which has sold more than GM, has become the world's largest carmaker and plans to launch a plug
In 2010, hybrid power was provided to fleet customers.
But Lutz said Toyota apparently fired lithium earlier --
A year and a half ago, GM announced the launch of the ion battery technology at Volt.
"They told GM around the world that it is taking a huge risk, and he said:" Lithium-ion batteries are prone to explosion, we are putting our customers at risk and they will stick to trying and being real . ".
"When it comes to Toyota, let me tell you that the media memory is very short.