GM cranks up battery tests for plug-in Volt

General Motors doesn't have long before everyone and their cousin expects to see at least a few Volts on the road -- and it knows it. In an attempt to make sure the deadline is met, the firm has battery testing going on 'round the clock in Michigan and Germany that will theoretically simulate a decade of use in just two years. Additionally, it's placing batteries in test Malibus in order to get a feel for real-world results. Still, GM has yet to definitively decide on the final engine or which battery supplier it'll end up working with, but as the eleventh hour grows ever closer, we can only hope that the pieces start to come together.

[Via CNET, image courtesy of Reuters]

[Flashpoint @ Apr 4th 2008 5:32PM]

Call me when they put this technology in regular sized SUVS, family sedans (5 passengers) and 4 passenger sedans.

What is this "coupe" addiction?

How do you really think an electric car that only fits two (small) people is really going to help America?

We need to focus on Trucks, Buses, and full sized sedans.

[Ignatius @ Apr 4th 2008 6:30PM]

Good golly gee, we need some hybrid 6,000 pound war machines on the road.

Do you have any idea how stupid that is? Thing is, the more weight, the less the benefits of electricity is at the moment until we have more efficient engines.

Regardless of that fact, there is no damned point in making a bus that can't go very far on 50kWh-capacity power. That's over 700 pounds of Lithium-ion Polymer batteries.

By the way, the Chevy Volt seats up to 5.

[Geir E @ Apr 5th 2008 12:50PM]

I bet if you look on your favorite highway and count the number of cars with more than 2 people in them, excluding busses, you not get a very high number.

It is practical with a big 4x4 if you live on the countryside where the winters are bad and the roads not always floored with asphalt, but wasteful if you live in the city.

But for the regular joe, a car that size is more than enough.

[letstakeawalk @ Apr 5th 2008 7:17PM]

The Volt is a 4-door sedan.

[Warren @ Apr 4th 2008 5:32PM]

Dear Chevy,
I WANT one. Now. Ill test out the Malibu's for you even! I live in Phoenix. What a great way to test out real world driving...on the surface of the sun.

Thank you.

[decapitor @ Apr 4th 2008 5:33PM]

great now just make it less ugly. specifically the side window thing they have going on there. seriously wtf is that?

[LordZargon @ Apr 4th 2008 5:38PM]

Its called "aesthetics".

[Dorf @ Apr 4th 2008 5:43PM]

A plug-in car? Do people not know the vast majority of electricity generated in this country is from coal? Coal demand is already going up so lets add a bunch of plug in cars.

GM's moto can be: The Chevy Volt! Powered by Coal!

[phanbouy @ Apr 4th 2008 5:49PM]

way to throw out the baby with the bathwater Dorf!

[Ignatius @ Apr 4th 2008 6:33PM]

Only 55% of the power is generated by coal. About 5% by oil. The rest is clean or much cleaner power.

A car powered by gasoline dumps out 21 pounds of CO2 per gallon burned.

[Sharakar @ Apr 4th 2008 5:44PM]

I for one , rly like how it looks, since I live in Europe and I'm so freaking tired of those round fluid shapes; I must be more allergic to round shapes(ofc women excluded) than 2 chrome( iphone ripoffs).Yeah it does look kinda ugly from a normal stand point, but that's exactly why I like it.

[yoyodude64 @ Apr 4th 2008 5:46PM]

technically the energy can b created by something OTHER than coal. nuclear, solar, wind...all alternatives that are growing in use

[CharlieX @ Apr 4th 2008 5:52PM]

There be the rub!

[Anthony @ Apr 4th 2008 5:52PM]

I love it. Currently we have 2 Honda Civic Hybrids. I'll be car shopping next year to replace the 03 so going 'merican again would be a welcome change- gotta do something to offset Moto's collapse.

[Todd @ Apr 4th 2008 5:53PM]

Someday, SOMEDAY, in what appears to be a new corporate game one-up-manship for teasing the Consumer, I shall be driving around in my Volt and talking on my LTE phone...I CAN HAZ UR TEKNOLOGY BEFORE THE MYAN CALENDER ENDS?!?!?

[jjl207 @ Apr 4th 2008 5:54PM]

The production Volt will NOT look like the concept. The aerodynamics of the concept are frankly appalling. This is a game changer, and GM knows it. It can save the company and make the Prius so last year in the eyes of the environmental crowd.

[Saad @ Apr 4th 2008 5:54PM]

Volt: love youuuu...

[Alex @ Apr 4th 2008 5:54PM]

Am I the only one that doesn't give a shit about fuel economy and gas prices?

[phanbouy @ Apr 4th 2008 5:56PM]

Cheney?

[GPS @ Apr 5th 2008 7:41AM]

Ask that to your mom.. cuz she's the one actually paying for ur gas

[Warren @ Apr 4th 2008 6:01PM]

ROFLMAO

[andres @ Apr 4th 2008 6:19PM]

now if they can just find a way to harness energy from raves, then i think theyd have something

[Mike B @ Apr 4th 2008 6:20PM]

Electric cars don't have engines - they have motors. So, they haven't decided on the final motor they will use.

[El Taco @ Apr 4th 2008 6:21PM]

w000! I was totally there when they revealed that car at the chicago auto show!

that is one sweet car.

[Twitchy @ Apr 4th 2008 6:23PM]

Now let's hope that the PC crowd, for whom PCness has overridden any ability for logical thought, don't have electric cars banned first.

[Anthony @ Apr 4th 2008 6:23PM]

I agree that it could really help them, but they tend to follow their concepts more than most other companies (for better or worse - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chevrolet_SSR). I wouldn't be surprised to see something similar out the door.

[Anthony @ Apr 4th 2008 6:24PM]

Yes. You are.

[Anthony @ Apr 4th 2008 6:25PM]

Am I the only one where replies aren't functioning properly? All my messages today aren't hitching a ride on the 1st commenter's & float w/o reference points.

[Jonathan Sousa @ Apr 4th 2008 6:26PM]

wow.... please don't talk before you embarrass yourself further. You clearly do not grasp a basic understanding of energy demands.

[eric @ Apr 4th 2008 6:28PM]

Don't get your hopes up. GM will just take this away from consumers like they did with the EV1.

[waiownsyou @ Apr 4th 2008 6:29PM]

phanbuoy, the only reason you're here is to insult people on Engadget.

Go outside. Do it in the real-world. Be like GM/Chevy.

[phanbouy @ Apr 4th 2008 6:33PM]

ruh roh shaggy! Libby Scooter just came to back up Dick Cheney!

[phanbouy @ Apr 4th 2008 6:34PM]

btw, i do plenty of other things here. for example, i think this car is fan fucking tastic and owns your mom.

hmm guess i couldn't leave "teh insultz!!!11" out after all =P

[phanbouy @ Apr 4th 2008 6:29PM]

click on date/time under someone's name to reply

[Anthony @ Apr 4th 2008 6:47PM]

Interesting. When did that change? Thanks for the tip.

[Ignatius @ Apr 4th 2008 6:32PM]

Only 55% of the power is generated by coal. About 5% by oil. The rest is clean or much cleaner power.

A car powered by gasoline dumps out 21 pounds of CO2 per gallon burned.

[Ignatius @ Apr 4th 2008 6:33PM]

God, I hope Engadget fixes the reply system soon, this is the third time I've made a mistake. ;(

[Ignatius @ Apr 4th 2008 6:40PM]

Oh, and nuclear power will probably make a comeback and with much newer technologies, training and education. We won't have anything near Three Mile Island and even then, no one was harmed and the radiation released was not significant.

I hate people being stupid about nuclear power and sit there and cite the Soviet Union (yeah, a REAL MODEL OF SOPHISTIFICATION) disaster as if it were law on the nuclear accidents.

Chernoybl was the only real nuclear accident and the most avoidable one we've had in history, but the Soviets weren't under control of their plants and they hired unskilled workers to maintain only PARTIAL CONTAINMENT.

[BigD145 @ Apr 4th 2008 6:40PM]

Cars/trucks in the US already outnumber its licensed citizens. Few people are willing to carpool and many of them can't do so easily with all the satellite rural towns. We need to focus on buses and TRAINS, not trucks or aircraft. Telecommuting would also relieve a ton of road clog.

[Jimmy @ Apr 4th 2008 6:43PM]

There is no need to be too upset about plug-in cars.

1. We have a lot of coal. In fact at current consumption rates the U.S. coal reserves are sufficient to last at least 230 years. In fact the US's reserves account for 35 percent of all the known coal reserves. Basically the coal industry can handle the increased demand.

2. Demand for oil is a lot worse than the demand for coal. There have been dozens of studies over the last twenty years on world oil reserves. All of the studies conclude the same thing: oil production will peak in the not too distant future. The date fluctuates by about twenty years but peak oil production will be somewhere between 2026 and 2047.

Also understand that I am not just talking about driving your car. A very large portion of the products on the market are somehow tied to oil including anything made from plastic! Once the daily supply of oil starts to decline then what? We have already reached the point where the bottle is worth as much or more than it's contents!

3. Bio-fuel that is morally ambiguous at best. Turning food producing farm land into energy producing farm land is not the way to go. If you doubt this, consider that yesterday corn hit $6 per bushel, an all time high. Every time you put ethanol in your car you are taking food out of someone's mouth.

4. Most scientists believe that we can find useful replacements for oil based energy in the future. However they all agree that it is a long way off with hydrogen being the current favorite. Either way it appears that the earliest we will see these technologies in the main stream will be 2020. Hybrids and plug-ins are intermediary steps that help reduce our reliance on oil.

If the idea of a plug-in car that is basically a coal burning car bothers you, then demand that more money be spent researching alternative fuels. In 2007 the DoE awarded less than $500 million in alternative fuel research. In that same year they spent over $2 billion on the strategic petroleum reserve.

sorry for the long winded post

[Ignatius @ Apr 4th 2008 7:17PM]

Fully electric cars are more of a reality than hydrogen powered cars will be though. I wouldn't be surprised to see another 10 or 15 full-electric vehicles hit the streets by 2010.

[jgb @ Apr 4th 2008 9:10PM]

I live in Oregon's Willamette Valley where as much as 20% of our food producing land is given over to growing Christmas trees. Land that used to grow wheat and barley is now used for growing holiday decorations.

And how about Brazil's energy policies that have made them independent of big oil? Not good for the U.S. - we NEED more dependence on fossil fuels, more war, more Xmas trees and less food, freedom, and sanity. "What a country!"

[aurispector @ Apr 4th 2008 9:07PM]

Someone pointed out earlier that coal is "only" 55% if our total energy generation. Sounds like a majority to me. Coal is really, really dirty -CO2, heavy metals, etc.. Basically, I agree that coal will continue to be an important energy source, but that there is a very real need to clean up coal emissions. It would also be great if we could come up with a virtually foolproof nuke plant design. It's possible, but it may not be politically likely to happen. Too bad.

[phanbouy @ Apr 5th 2008 12:40AM]

sure coal is bad, but ever live near an oil refinery?

and besides, even the abysmal efficiencies of the energy trapped in coal that actually reaches your electrical outlets (like 3% iirc), still beats gasoline all said and done.

[tim @ Apr 4th 2008 7:06PM]

fuel storage is not an issue; i am a sailor and we often don't use up a full tank of diesel in a season. never had an issue with fuel stabilizer.

[spacegravity4me @ Apr 4th 2008 7:12PM]

Ok.... look. This technology will benefit us all when it has been refined. That process has to start somewhere. This is just another example of the classic technological trickle down effect. Why do you think it "started" (mainstream consumer wise) with the tesla roadster? These things have to start high up, when they still have some issues, and then, as a result of constant testing and development, refinement and competition, the tech trickles to the next mainstream level, the common consumer! That's us, that'd be cars like the volt. After that stage, assuming it's a success, it will become more advanced and refined, so it will take the next step and be applied to a much wider variety of applications. In this instance, that'd be suv's, buses, full sized cars, limos, etc. That's what this volt is good for. It stretches the public's mind open wide enough to make them see this as nice and practical. Same thing happened with hybrids. Mainstream wise, it went, Insight, prius, civic, escape, and escalated from there. I may not have the order perfect, but you get the idea.

[spacegravity4me @ Apr 4th 2008 7:14PM]

@ Flashpoint oh, and sorry for the double post, the reply thing isn't working.

Ok.... look. This technology will benefit us all when it has been refined. That process has to start somewhere. This is just another example of the classic technological trickle down effect. Why do you think it "started" (mainstream consumer wise) with the tesla roadster? These things have to start high up, when they still have some issues, and then, as a result of constant testing and development, refinement and competition, the tech trickles to the next mainstream level, the common consumer! That's us, that'd be cars like the volt. After that stage, assuming it's a success, it will become more advanced and refined, so it will take the next step and be applied to a much wider variety of applications. In this instance, that'd be suv's, buses, full sized cars, limos, etc. That's what this volt is good for. It stretches the public's mind open wide enough to make them see this as nice and practical. Same thing happened with hybrids. Mainstream wise, it went, Insight, prius, civic, escape, and escalated from there. I may not have the order perfect, but you get the idea.

[Michael LaFramboise @ Apr 4th 2008 7:14PM]

No, would bet theres a few more such as yourself out there...

[Dave @ Apr 4th 2008 7:31PM]

Flashpoint I usually like your comments but that one is just off the mark.

How many people do you see driving to work every day by themselves?

[Dave @ Apr 4th 2008 7:31PM]

and omg FIX THE DAMN REPLY BUTTON!!!!