AutoblogGreen Q&A: Nick Zielinski and Gary Smyth of General Motors
Following the Challenge-X presentation presentation at General Motors headquarters last week, a group of bloggers including myself, Matt Kelly of The Next Gear, Lyle Dennis of gm-volt.com, Todd Kaho of Green Car Journal, Scott Anderson of Hydrogen Forecast, Philip Proefrock of Ecogeek, and Matt Mayer of GroovyGreen.com were invited to sit down to dinner with Nick Zielinski and Gary Smyth of General Motors. Nick is the Chief Engineer for the Volt program and Gary is the Director of Powertrain Systems Research and Development. Each will play a major role in shaping the direction and leading the teams that define the future of transportation at GM. We had a wide ranging discussion that covered topics ranging from a certain concept car as it advances toward production, battery and engine technology, various fuels including coal to liquid and more. I'm not providing a transcript for this one because of the number people in the discussion, and the length but it's definitely worth listening too. Unfortunately a jazz band started playing in the next room about 40 minutes in and that lasts about twenty minutes but you can still hear the discussion. The whole recording runs a few minutes shy of two hours and it's unedited.
Lyle gives his take on the discussion here, and you can listen to the whole thing here.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Tim 4:06PM (6/11/2007)
According to this September 1993 issue of the US Gov’t D.O.E.s Office of Transportation Technology’s HEV Technical Advisor paper... “After investigating both the Gas Turbine and the Stirling Engine, the choice of the HPU (Hybrid Power Unit) was narrowed to the Stirling engine.” GM completed this work in 1993! http://www.p2pays.org/ref/16/15287.pdf
Now, I understand that the new gas turbines produces in 1998 with newer alloys, a recuperator, and foil bearings was 3X more efficient than even the best piston engines when both are running at optimal RPM like in a genset. Turbines only have 1 moving part and that's why the airliners us them for onboard power. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gas_turbine Any thoughts about using GM using these, Stirling engines, or some other non-fuel cell technology for true multi-fuel APUs?
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mikeinBuilding7 4:50PM (6/11/2007)
Wow. You know it's Amazing what you hear about once enough people are interested in the subject. These Auto CEO's are In the Business and ALL then can think to do is Protect and Defend the Gas Guzzling V8 Engine, where in reality there seem to be Lots of Better Solutions.
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Altairian1 8:24PM (6/11/2007)
Watch out GM guys for the Elctric LIGHTNING GTS powered by Altairnano Nanosafe (the battery you said you knew nothing about)!
Ouch The sports car 700 hp 0-60 mph in 4 sec all wheel drive is ready for orders.
http://www.lightningcarcompany.com/
http://www.evworld.com/news.cfm?newsid=15408&url=
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Sam Abuelsamid 10:26PM (6/11/2007)
Altairian1, being ready for orders and being ready to deliver a vehicle that meets all the safety and durability requirements are two very different things. Plus it will only be available in limited quantities in the UK. Also note that their is no mention anywhere of price. GM is trying to build a vehicle that large numbers of average people can afford to buy and drive lots of miles for many years. Big difference!
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altairian1 2:56AM (6/12/2007)
PM(Phoenix Motorcars,not gm, is not just "trying to" but built 2 vehicles,SUT and SUV that large numbers of average people can afford to buy and drive lots of miles for many years. Big difference!
Altairnano nanosafe powers both models. Plus Zap/Lotus, ISE and Alcoa in the making.........
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Sam Abuelsamid 9:10AM (6/12/2007)
altairian1, Building a handful of prototypes is not nearly the same as building 100,000+ annually. Average people cannot buy the Phoenix vehicles. They are only available to fleets and they are looking at about 500 units in the first year. Phoenix's business model is also not likely to be sustainable since they are relying on being able to sell $200,000 worth of clean air credits for every vehicle in order to break even.
As for Tesla, as much as I love the Roadster, this also not a mainstream vehicle. With a $100,000 price tag and 200 unit a year volume, only a select few will ever own one. The WhiteStar is still at least two years away.
The Zap-X is also still pure vaporware is could very well end up being the automotive equivalent of Duke Nukem Forever.
As much as I'd like to see all these companies succeed Tesla looks the like the closest to being a viable business at this point and the other are making big claims at this time.
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christopher t sewell 11:52PM (9/16/2007)
gm needs to make lighter cheaper cars trucks,convert to basic what the customer wants,like you can make with propane gas injecters in manifold, 5 clinder engines,micro chips out of quartz or cyrstal that last longer,use alternaters to re charge fuel cell, hydren and propane gas never been used before, more eletronics like i phone with onstar program also sirrus radio,please cut the big health that never was for retiered it a big lie asked the president of us what hes says, i ask the president he said in a email to much pork , if you dont modernize you die, its like hip hop generation, with all the money, if toyota can sell hip hop cars then they can get all the hip hop for generations sales, im not a rich man thank you christopher thorwald sewell,
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