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General Motors (GM) is developing a number of cars that will run on alternative fuels such as electricity, hydrogen, or green liquids like ethanol. But don't count on an all-electric car anytime soon from the auto giant.
It's the one green transport idea that the company isn't dedicating a lot of time to, Dave Barthmuss, GM's group general manager for environment and energy communications, said during a break at the Hollywood Goes Green conference this week. GM brought a prototype of its petrol/electric motor, the Chevy Volt, and the Equinox, a hydrogen-powered SUV, to the event.
So why not go all the way, with a fully electric vehicle? In a word: batteries. Batteries cost a lot, weigh quite a bit, and can't take a car nearly as far as a combination of petrol and electric power, or even a full tank of petrol. Battery capacity and endurance are improving, but at a gradual pace. Even bringing down the price and boosting the performance of batteries to manufacture plug-in hybrids and other petrol-electric combo cars remains problematic.
"It is the biggest challenge we have with this car. We're working at the cell level, the pack level," said Andrew Farah, vehicle chief engineer of E-flex Systems, the GM group developing the Volt.
The Volt runs on batteries, but it contains a petrol motor that recharges the battery after 40 miles. With the petrol recharger and a full tank of petrol, the car has a range of 640 miles. The batteries also can get recharged by plugging the car into the wall at night. Mileage should be in the triple digit range, or about 100 miles per gallon. People who don't drive more than 40 miles a day will barely consume petrol. In this way, the Volt will outdo many plug-in hybrids on mileage, Farah said.
The goal is to get the car to commercial production by 2010, he said. Ideally, the price will be in the $30,000 (around £15,000) range. By contrast, all-electric cars coming to market will have a range of 120 to 250 miles and most will cost between $50,000 and $100,000 (around £25,000 to £50,000).
Although the Volt will likely look a lot different when it hits the market, the prototype is kind of cool looking. It's fairly roomy. The only complaint at the conference came from Dallas star Larry Hagman, who didn't like the transparent plastic roof. "You will fry in California," Hagman said. GM will work on ways to tint it, Farah told him.
GM has also recently kicked off a program called Project Driveway under which 100 consumers will get an Equinox, their hydrogen SUV, to drive. The tests, which will take place in California, Washington, Washington D.C., and New York, will largely seek to find how hydrogen cars mix with the average person's driving.
The company is also trying to ensure that the people testing the cars will live near those rare hydrogen filling stations. In addition, there will be a big push for hybrids and plug-in hybrids, GM executives said. Over the next four years, GM will release 16 hybrids into the market.
Meanwhile, in ethanol, GM will continue to put out flex fuel vehicles that can drive on E85, or a blend of fuel that is 85 percent ethanol. The company has already sold 2.5 million flex fuel cars, and by 2012, roughly half the cars coming out of its factories will be flex fuel cars. A chief problem with flex fuel cars, however, is the lack of stations that pump E85. Only about one per cent of stations in the US sell the stuff. To this end, GM will work with stations by providing them with advertising money or other promotional materials.
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