Akerson Says GM Working on 200-Mile Range Electric Car

[ne_one]

Akerson Says GM Working on 200-Mile Range Electric Car
Reuters
March 7, 2013
by Tim Higgins

General Motors Co. is working on developing an electric car that has a range of as much as 200 miles (322 kilometers), Chief Executive Officer Dan Akerson said.

“There will be breakthroughs in battery technology, they’re on the horizon,” Akerson said today during a presentation at the IHS CERAWeek energy conference broadcast on CNBC.com. “We’re actually developing a car today which is really anathema to the way the auto industry works: We’re running a dual play on the technology to see which one will succeed. One will result in” a 100-mile range, “the other will be a 200-mile range.”

The CEO reiterated GM’s plans to have about 500,000 vehicles on the road by 2017 with some form of electrification, including the Chevrolet Volt, which can go 38 miles on battery power, and he also pointed to work the Detroit-based automaker is doing with diesel and compressed-natural gas, according prepared remarks.

Full article at link.

[smithb]

GM announces "We are only a decade behind upstart Tesla"

This is sad, too bad they haven't been working on this for years.

[GMusa]

Hmm, wonder what the price tag will be like.. Tesla range?

[ne_one]

GM announces "We are only a decade behind upstart Tesla"

The implication appears to be that this will be achieved through new battery technology, not simply matching an established range.

[Dave B]

A 200 mile battery range Volt would be within almost everybody's every day usage except for trips so GM wouldn't be able to build them fast enough.

[mgescuro]

Hmmm... Seeing as a mid-range Tesla S already goes 230 miles on a charge (at $63,000)... what is GM actually trying to say here?
If GM gets to 200 miles on a charge by 2017 or so.... where will Tesla be in 2017? 500 miles??
They're already at 300 miles (at $73,000).

Is GM going to make a lower price point? Will it be a Voltec "electric" car? Or will it be a pure electric car?

[Tone]

In reading people's experience with battery vehicles, range is only part of the issue and arguably not the most important part. Recharge time is huge. If I had a vehicle that went 100 miles on a charge, but could be easily recharged in a couple of minutes (and recharging was available), the range issue would be a minor annoyance. But, getting even a 250 mile range, but long recharge times is much harder to get around.

Honestly, an affordable electric vehicle with a 100 mile range and a very, very fast recharge time would be a game changer. Give me 200 miles and similar recharge times and you arguable have something better than today's ICE -- the efficiency and torque of an electric vehicle with the convenience and usability of a ICE.

[dreadnaught1181]

So they are going to follow Ford and Nissan in the production of electrified dealership ornamentation.

Ok...

So how much range would you have if you removed the petroleum-driven drivetrain components from a Volt added a second battery pack under the hood?

[BigAls87Z28]

WHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHY!!! Why?!?! Why! Why. Why. Why.


Work on cars, damn it. Work on Voltec, work on a flagship car for Cadillac, work on a better compact car, work on a better midsized platform, work on a REAL HYBRID VEHICLE, work on anything else that isn't an electric vehicle.

[krusshall]

WHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHY!!! Why?!?! Why! Why. Why. Why.


Work on cars, damn it. Work on Voltec, work on a flagship car for Cadillac, work on a better compact car, work on a better midsized platform, work on a REAL HYBRID VEHICLE, work on anything else that isn't an electric vehicle.

Yeah because it's absolutely impossible for GM to work on multiple projects simultaneously.

[EJD1984]

GM needs to leapfrog the electric car competition (Tesla), and have a 4-door sedan with a 500+ mile range right out of box.

[BigAls87Z28]

Yeah because it's absolutely impossible for GM to work on multiple projects simultaneously.

A project like that takes a long time, especially for GM. Engineering that would be better set for every one of those cars and not some pure-EV car. As long as it took to build up the Volt, they were twice as fast to throw it into the garbage. Why can't GM work on Voltec and turn the EV market into a joke? Why? Because GM is, once again, chasing after what's popular while not actually working on things that would outclass the competition.

[caddycruiser]

A project like that takes a long time, especially for GM. Engineering that would be better set for every one of those cars and not some pure-EV car. As long as it took to build up the Volt, they were twice as fast to throw it into the garbage. Why can't GM work on Voltec and turn the EV market into a joke? Why? Because GM is, once again, chasing after what's popular while not actually working on things that would outclass the competition.

The word "confusion" comes to mind. Running on a hamster wheel, not sure to where.

Interesting. EV's, okay. But let's get back to basics...Lutz style basics...first.

[zete]

I read this as being a 200 mile Voltec car, not a 200 mile electric car which anyone can do. What I see is a car with the pack no larger than what a Volt has but that can go 200 miles. It would come with a generator for longer trips, ensuring you don't have to try to schedule trips around charging stations, which may well be far and between.

Let's be realistic about Voltec. It's 2009 technology, at best, maybe 2008 or even 2007. That gives GM and battery companies 4 - 7 years of R&D. If we figure Voltec 2.0 is due out in 2015 Voltec's current technology will be 6 - 10 years old and as anyone in technology knows, that's a very long time. It's anyone's guess but double the capacity out of the same size pack shouldn't be outrageous and I've read that nanotubes increase Li-Ion battery capacity up to 5 times, which would be a game changer -- 1/5th the pack for the same range as the current Volt. Same size = 200+ miles. And all at the same price point the Volt is at now for the 200+ mile version.

[ne_one]

In reading people's experience with battery vehicles, range is only part of the issue and arguably not the most important part.

Increased range is also an area that is eminently achievable by simply adding more capacity.

Telsa has done a great job of repackaging conventional technologies to achieve a workable range but their approach isn't particularly innovative.

The EV industry needs parity to ICE-powered vehicles in many areas before it can be sustainable. That means more range, faster charge times, less battery mass & volume and lower costs for manufacturing and consumers.