Bob Lutz finds out first-hand what happens when you run out of juice
Click on the image above for more shots of Lutz and the Vectrix
Bob Lutz, GM's formost Volt-pusher, loves himself some electric vehicles. As the owner of four (that's right... dude's got four!) Segways and a Vectrix Scooter, he's surely gotten used to the charging ritual. Still, accidents happen, and Mr. Lutz apparently found himself stranded after a faulty charge gauge left him thinking he had nearly twenty miles left before his batteries were dead. A few miles later, though, the Vectrix rolled to a stop and would move no further.
"When you are out in the middle of nowhere with an electric vehicle, and you have no back-up powerplant, you are truly, truly screwed. You can't go to the nearest wall outlet and bring back five gallons of electricity," Lutz says. Of course, with the Chevy Volt, the driver would need to both run his batteries dry and continue to run his gas tank dry before being stranded, though that distance may come a bit quicker than was initially planned.
Gallery: Bob Lutz's new Vectrix
Gallery: Chevy Volt Concept
[Source: Auto Observer]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Brent 6:13PM (7/16/2008)
This could be very symbolic.
(I am not a GM hater, well sort of, since they aren't bring the Beat to the US.)
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1985 Gripen 6:19PM (7/16/2008)
This totally smells like a publicity stunt to me. "Look what happens to an electric car when it doesn't have a range extender. We must learn to love petroleum!"
Faulty charge gauge, huh? I hope that vendor's name is duly noted and put on Chevrolet's Purchasing Department's black list...
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tankd0g 9:42PM (7/16/2008)
They probably have a lifetime contract with them. http://www.autoblog.com/2007/03/05/gm-sued-over-inaccurate-speedometers/
. 2:00AM (7/17/2008)
"totally smells like a publicity stunt to me"
Agreed. Does he have a press release every time he rides the thing?
a.brien 6:37PM (7/16/2008)
This is the nightmare with batteries, it's a problematic and underpower device right from the start. It has all sort of un-resolving defects like memory effect, overheating, weight, low density, limited life, heavy pollution and toxicity. This bike is selling for 12 000$ and cannot monitor the battery because nobody can monitor a battery because it's a un-stable device. Maybe the best battery was the one GM has sold to Chevron.
The best battery is a battery that store his electrolyte outside and is therefore stable and high-density and durable, this is call a fuelcell and the electrolite is hydrogen.
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Ignatius 7:01PM (7/16/2008)
And about 20 times the price, of course.
Anyway... Lithium-polymer batteries, the ones that will be used in the Volt, do not suffer from memory effect. Second, limited recharge cycles? If they go with A123, they have put forth numbers that state it will survive tens of thousands of charges with very little decrease in maximum capacity. Third, overheating is not an issue with lithium-polymer, as it is much more stable than Lithium-ion, it will not explode under extreme heat or puncture.
As for low density (what?) and heavy pollution and toxicity, do you have the manufacturing expertise to know what actually goes into making these batteries?
Finally, what the hell. Of course a battery is partially unstable, gasoline is an unstable, picky substance. The reason why the technology is failing unexpectedly is because of it being so new. We have had gasoline engines for over a bloody century. Most new battery technologies and electric engines have only been built in the last decade.
Oi vei.
Chris M 2:01AM (7/17/2008)
It was NiCad batteries that had the "memory" effect and contained toxic cadmium, but they aren't used in EVs or hybrids. Instead, those cars use NiMH or LiIon, which don't have a memory effect, are not particularly toxic, and have long lifespan if good battery management is used. Of course batteries can be monitored and State of Charge measured, but any part can fail, including battery charge gauges.
The battery patents that GM sold to Chevron are for NiMH batteries, and the batteries in the Vectrix are, get this, NiMH! So, according to a.brien the Vectrix has "maybe the best battery"! While the Vectrix price is high, it is just a fraction of the cost of a fuel cell, which is why Vectrix is available now on the market but no fuel cell bikes are for sale, now or anytime soon.
It is fuel cells that have a problem with durability - early PEM fuel cells failed after just 1,500 miles, and while they have been greatly improved, they still don't last as long as the NiMH batteries used in the Prius.
The battery that stores its electrolyte outside is the Vanadium Reflow battery, a nifty type of battery, but unsuited for automotive use. Hydrogen is NOT an electrolyte, it is a fuel for fuel cells. Moreover, hydrogen is most definitely NOT "high density", it is instead the lowest density substance known, much lighter than air!
david 9:44PM (8/17/2008)
Thanks for giving me my props autoblog. by the way,who sent you that link?
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wildgoosechase73 7:32PM (7/16/2008)
Ha ha ha. The future of electric vehicles.
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JMar 9:15PM (7/16/2008)
Uh huh. This had to have been scripted.
Yeah, you're totally boned in an EV. You know, unless you have a solar charger. Or maybe instead of walking 20 miles round trip for a can of gas, you use a pedal-powered generator in that same time. Or you call AAA who brings a fast charger.
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tankd0g 9:42PM (7/16/2008)
Or you call AAA who brings a tow truck, I hear they work on EVs just like real cars.
meme 12:30AM (7/17/2008)
Like a power gauge is any less likely to fail than a gas gauge. And lets compare these scenarios. He can either walk to a gas station, buy a gas can, fill it, then walk back, or he can walk his bike a fraction as far to the nearest building, one direction. Personally, I'd prefer the latter scenario.
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kert 4:10AM (7/17/2008)
trickle charge solar, fast charge adapter from another cars 12V starter battery ?
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paulstamser 11:29AM (7/17/2008)
Whatever the ultimate future of all-electric vehicles, there will be a necessary transition period with a backup gas engine. Although why would it have to be more than a motorcycle engine if all it does is run an alternator?
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Bah 12:36PM (7/17/2008)
Solar charger? Pedal charger? Just how long would it take to get the equivelant energy of a few gallons of gas from either of those sources? I'll not even bother with the other obvious potential pitfalls of those solutions.
A tow truck is just as useless with a dead battery. Now your car is stuck at a service station - still with no charge. Assuming they have a charger and will let you use it, you're looking at how many hours to charge? Hope you brought a book and didn't have a pressing engagement at the other end of your journey.
Petroleum is not a necessity (witness how the Volts e-flex powerplant was shown with a fuel cell in China) but some sort of portable, high energy density fuel is. Consider that it takes 1600# of battery to get the Volt 40 miles, but the average sedan needs less than two gallons (12 pounds?) of gasoline to do the same. Batteries still need a 100X increase in energy density to truly compare with our current fuel of choice.
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Bill 1:39PM (7/17/2008)
375 lbs. for the Volt battery packs currently being tested.
The original EV1 lead-acid battery pack was 1310 lbs., maybe you were remembering that one?
meme 1:34PM (7/17/2008)
"Consider that it takes 1600# of battery to get the Volt 40 miles, but the average sedan needs less than two gallons (12 pounds?) of gasoline to do the same."
That and near a thousand pounds of internal combustion engine.
Batteries don't compete for weight and space with gasoline. They compete for weight and space with the internal combustion engine. Electric motors are small and light.
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Whopper 2:04PM (7/17/2008)
Come on meme, let's be fair. Comparing the "propulsion packages" of each the electric vehcile will come out the loser. You can't resolve the problem if you don't face it. The problem is, as it has always been, the power density of a battery pack is just too low to be practical outside of a city runabout.
I ride my motorcycle to work and on most errands. A 40 mile range would serve me three out of seven days during the week. The rest of the week I'd be stranded.
By the way, the V6 engine and 6-spd manual trans in my 2003 Silverado weighed in at 780 lbs (I know because I pulled them both and replaced them with a 350 V8 & 5-spd). Don't recall many 1000 lb ICE outside of diesels.
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