Volt battery may be shaped like accordion
David Pogue did a great segment on CBS Sunday Morning all about electric cars recently which included an interview with GM vice chairman Bob Lutz. David has a larger chunk of the interview with Bob Lutz in his e-newsletter. In the interview, Bob mentions the "batteries may or may not have exactly that shape" as the ones shown in the cutaway. Bob says "one of suppliers is even looking at doing them in little foil bags, like those airline toilettes. Except you'd accordion the whole batch of them." David then jokes "and they're not as useful in wiping your face." Bob adds "No, you would not want to wipe your face. Although lithium... you know, if you're bipolar, you can eat your battery."
Bob also says "at various stages of the program, we are going to bring in members of the media. I'm hoping that as early as spring of '08, we will have the first rough prototypes running, which will permit members of the media to drive 30 or 40 miles purely on batteries and listen to the internal combustion engine kick in." Bob is also critical of CAFE in the interview saying saying numbers like 35 MPG are "crazy." On the release date, Bob says "It'll either be late '10 or early '11, but we're still holding everybody's feet to the fire for 2010." The car will also look like the Volt, which is designed to be different from any GM car which Bob says is the "secret of the Prius."
There are funny parts to the interview as well. I especially like the joke about free Volts for reporters and David's joke about Toyota's floating car. David Pogue and Bob Lutz should do a comedy routine together with accordions.
[Source: New York Times]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
A.Brien 8:01PM (9/21/2007)
I prefer gas or ethanol or hydrogen over batteries. Just having to wait 4-6 hours for a recharge compare to 5 minutes with fuel makes the difference. Maybe if they invent a way to swap the battery at a service station it will make sense but it will be a hurdle. To go to work daily maybe battery are o.k but on weekend and vacations ?? On the long run hydrogen will win.
By the way i always checked the box 'notify me when someone replies' but i never received emails when someone replies?
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Marc Brodeur 10:25PM (9/23/2007)
electric cars are the future. A hydrogen economy is utterly uneconomcal.
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AES 12:42AM (9/22/2007)
A.Brien-
"Just having to wait 4-6 hours for a recharge compare to 5 minutes with fuel makes the difference."
That's the idea with a plug-in hybrid - you can fill 'er up with either electricity or fuel. Road trips yield good gas mileage, and shorter distances yield fantastic gas mileages.
Battery technology has also come a long way in the last 10 years, so don't be surprised to see those charging times start to dwindle as the charging infrastructure is put in place.
re:hydrogen, there are a lot of technical issues with cost, storage, and production. Maybe they will be solved one day, but until then most of us will be using fossil fuel or biofuel-based PHEV's for a very long time.
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Chris M 2:00AM (9/22/2007)
A.Brien, I don't see any serious problem with long recharge times - it only takes 10 seconds to plug in, then I can do other things like eat or read Autoblog Green or sleep while it is automatically charging. Next moring, unplug and go with a full battery.
The big advantage of driving electric is the high efficiency and much lower per mile cost for "electric fuel". The savings can be significant - 1 to 3 cents per mile for electric vs 6 to 30 cents per mile for petrol. H2, on the other hand, is more expensive than petrol.
Plug-in hybrids gives you the option of electricity or fuel, you can choose low cost home recharging for daily commutes or quick fuel refills for longer trips!
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SolarDave 8:17AM (9/22/2007)
Hey Bob, the secret of the Prius is that it's designed differently? Hmmm... think it has anything to do with the 50-60 mph? Bob reveals his true colors as he fights against CAFE standards. Typical car exec; stuck in the 20th century.
Hydrogen is vaporware. It's not coming in your lifetime. The car companies have been talking hydrogen for decades. So where are we? Still at the starting line. Both it's fuel and systems are prohibitively expensive, it has no delivery infrastructure, and is less efficient than electrics when calculating total efficiency (go to www.teslamotors.com for a complete discussion).
Electric cars, thanks to Tesla and Miles and Phoenix and other REAL entrepreneurs, will be here within the year. They are the perfect vehicle for 90% of our uses; perhaps not vacations, but then doesn't it make sense to rent for a few days' worth of driving? I also personally like the idea of refueling in my garage, and not having to go out and hunt for fuel.
Electric cars will be a game changer. Within 5 years.
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SkiD666 10:03AM (9/24/2007)
SolarDave, you do realize Toyota was standing next to GM when opposing CAFE.
And if anyone thinks that "one" specific technology is going to replace gasoline powered ICE's, you are living in a dream world.
Hybrids, Ethanol, Diesel, Hydrogen, electric, etc., will provide a mixture of options for the next 20 years or so until we transition to all electric.
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