VIDEO: Installing the battery pack in the first Volt IVER
In the latest installment of General Motors' ongoing video series chronicling the build process for the pre-production Chevy Volts, you can now see the installation of a battery pack. In fact according to the video, this is the very first attempt at a pack install. Aside from creating the development vehicles, the IVER process allows the engineers to actually test and fine tune the processes that will be used to mass produce the cars on the regular assembly line. Particularly on the early cars, at each station a number of assembly line workers and engineers will gather to evaluate how all the parts go together. In the Volt, the pack fits into the tunnel with very little clearance to minimize the intrusion into the passenger area. Note that the pack is also now clad in heat shielding to minimize any thermal transfer back and forth to the car. Watch the video after the jump.
[Source: General Motors]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
GoodCheer 3:28PM (8/21/2009)
Congrats to GM, an emotionally significant step.
I could sure do without the music though...
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Steve 4:53PM (8/21/2009)
This is going to be a very heavy car...with the ngine,exhaust, batteries, EVmotor, fuel tank. Anyone know the final vehicle weight on this?
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letstakeawalk 5:19PM (8/21/2009)
"The task now is simplify and miniaturise the components to fit a smaller, Astra-derived package, including a 180 kilogram T-shaped battery pack that fits along the transmission tunnel and under the rear seat. At around 1600kg the Volt is substantially heavier than an Astra, but its overall weight distribution is closer to 50:50."
http://www.autocar.co.uk/News/NewsArticle/Chevrolet-Concepts/234534/
1600kg = 3527lbs
The Prius weighs about 2930lbs, for comparison
Dan Frederiksen 5:31PM (8/21/2009)
it's too little too late. it's the same old overweight soft heavy steel car philosophy as always. poor aerodynamics. too many seats.
for the most part people drive as individuals. we need cars that address that so they can be many times more efficient.
I hope GM is working on spin off improved projects all the time but most likely they are the same thoughtless bunch as always. if they think that just doing this car will keep them up to date in all the 5 years it takes them to make it they are very wrong.
it's still at least 2/3 old thinking.
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ug 5:56PM (8/21/2009)
Perfect is the enemy of good.
Dan Frederiksen 6:07PM (8/21/2009)
that's a terribly disappointing stupid reply because you use it in the sense that delaying execution of jews in concentration camps is just fine because perfection of releasing them is too hard to do..
I didn't ask for 'perfect'. I proposed they keep thinking and not wait for someone to make a documentary about how evil they are before they change a little bit again. The volt concept was entirely damage control for the public shaming they got from 'who killed the electric car'. a small step in the right direction but far from good enough. THINK!
if all they have accomplished by 2012 is production of the Volt then they will have failed considerably and the world along with them. The ocean is coming and there will be no mercy for the stupidity of mankind
PopSmith 9:06PM (8/21/2009)
While I am not defending Chevy or the Volt (I personally believe pure-electric i.e. Model S is the way to go) the aerodynamics on the Volt not horrible and they are definitely better than anything Government Motors has put out in a long time.
While I do agree that the average person doesn't need a sedan because they will mainly drive solo they do occasionally need the extra seats for when they haul friends/family around. I don't believe a whole lot of people can afford multiple cars just to make one a little more economically friendly.
I guess the best current compromise would be a 2+2. While I personally don't mind a 2+2, it seems that Americans have become accustom to having decent amounts of room (in any situation) and probably wouldn't like a 2+2. GM can't afford to "play" with the Volt and see if it sells well as a 2+2. However, I hope they will try it with the Gen. 2 or 3 car.
Also, insurance companies charge a premium (sometimes significant) for a "Sports Car" (or whatever term they use) that has only two seats. That wouldn't help the Volt or any other "economic" car in terms of sales.
ufgrat 9:34PM (8/21/2009)
I love armchair experts. So little time, yet so much ability to be completely wrong about nearly everything they say.
This isn't an NEV, this is a family car. This is a car that doesn't expect you to sacrifice seating (well, the 5th seat may be missed by some), storage, or range, in order to benefit from an electric car.
And for the record, GM has already stated that the coefficient of drag is second only to the EV1 in GM's history.
Dan Frederiksen 9:44PM (8/21/2009)
aside from that the aerodynamics can be much better than the volt you are almost right Popsmith except for one critical point. you don't understand that a 1 seater or 1+1 can be made much cheaper than 'normal' cars so you can indeed afford more than one.
that's a hugely crucial point and it's actually philosophically amusing/frustrating that single seater cars have not been done long ago.
a long time ago it was concluded that you could never afford more than one car and you want to go somewhere with your whole family so that's how a car is period. but that's very wrong and noone really realized this in all these decades..
it's a bit similar to how a family only had one phone and now each individual has one.
it is simply not rational to drive one person in a 5 seater car that's even oversized for 5 and made of soft heavy steel. humans are so fantastically stupid, not because they have to but because they subconsciously choose to. I suggest you start thinking.
the society we would get if people started thinking would be so much better that the contrast to our current society in the 'developed' countries would be greater than the contrast between us and the most primitive of african nations now.
there would be no soldiers, no poverty or disease. there would be no republicans and people would never have to go to work for money. this and much more could happen if we only thought about the big picture just a little.
Bill 2:16PM (8/22/2009)
"1 seater or 1+1 can be made much cheaper than 'normal' cars"
Only NEVs have been significantly cheaper than 'normal' cars, and they are usually restricted to 25mph, surface streets only.
Here in the U.S,, the Smart car has been a poor seller, with relatively low mileage for a 2-seat, lightweight vehicle. And it is not the least bit cheap.
Dan Frederiksen 2:23PM (8/22/2009)
I said can be. not what greedy mindless mercedes have done (they own smart)
and a smart is not a 1+1. it's a 2 seater. 1 seat after another.
bman 10:47PM (8/22/2009)
They do make one seaters, they are call motorcycles. You sound like you are willing to sacrifice things like extra seats and "conviences." I've seen people here in wisconsin riding when it is 0F and snowing. Put your money where your mouth is.
Dan Frederiksen 10:58PM (8/22/2009)
bman, take a look at this: www.zev.dk
LeanGreenMachine 7:53PM (8/21/2009)
Woah, woah, woah! From EVs to Jews in concentration camps? I have to invoke Goodwin's law on you on this one - you automatically lose this debate.
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ug 10:12PM (8/21/2009)
Anyone who has every belonged to EVDL knows that Dan Fredericksen is a crank who likes to stir the pot. Don't feed the trolls.
skierpage 6:57AM (8/23/2009)
(It's Godwin's Law, not Goodwin's.)
Mr. Frederiksen is certainly engaged. It is indeed strange that we put our 200 pound fat asses and 20 pounds of groceries in a 3500 pound car. Undoubtedly 2+ car households should radically rethink their second car. But until carbon fiber gets much cheaper, affordable really light cars will do poorly on crash tests, and the conventional wisdom in USA is that people won't buy them.
My other car is a bicycle, but most people either live too far from where they're going or are too fat and lazy to use them. There are all kinds of ways for a 200 pounder and 20 pounds of stuff to travel, like Segways, electric mopeds, the late Corbin Sparrow, etc., but they get derision from observers because they're so much more expensive than a bicycle and do less than cars. The Tango T200 is a 1+ seater compact electric car, but it's rumored to cost $39900.
How do these threads get so far from the initial posts? Damn Nazis!!!
jpm 10:41PM (8/21/2009)
I bet some of the old timey techs working there never thought they'd be installing batts
... too bad GM dropped the ball with the EV1, they could have been installing batts for the past 10 yrs
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ufgrat 10:59PM (8/21/2009)
In test vehicles maybe... they certainly wouldn't have been selling them. At $80,000 a unit, the EV1 would have never sold.
jpm 2:20AM (8/22/2009)
how do you know? there were plenty of people willing to buy before GM crushed them.
PeakOyle 12:16AM (8/22/2009)
Ironically, I've always thought of the EV1 as the 'Jew' of the car world.
Although I use the term only in the context of explaining the similarities of the Jewish peoples plight during Pre WW2.
Jewish people were rounded up and sent to concentration/death camps because certain groups feared them and feared change or even the illusion of change.
Not unlike how the humble EV1 was rounded up and crushed because of not so much of what it was but what it represented. A kind of automobile genocide.
I hope this comment doesnt offend anyone as that was not my intention. I just wished to highlight the similarities of these extreme acts that are brought about by fear and evil.
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