First Chevrolet Volt battery rolls off the assembly line, wonders where its home is (video)
By Tim Stevens 
posted January 7th 2010 7:57PM
posted January 7th 2010 7:57PM
Itching to get your hands on the wheel and feet on the pedals of a Chevy Volt? You still have some time to wait -- but things are getting closer to reality at least. The car was introduced three full years ago, amazingly, and we're still about a year away from the things rolling off the production line en masse. The batteries, though, those are in production. The first line-produced cell rolled off the line in the repetitively named Brownstown Township, MI. Well, the first official battery, as surely the units in the 80-odd test Volts had to come from somewhere. In the coming months before the Volt itself hits production, cells from this line will be put through their paces, both on test benches and in those early, hand-built vehicles. Eventually, production-line batteries will be mated with production-line Volts, birds will sing, squirrels will dance, and rainbows will fly. Until then, we'll keep playing with the demo OnStar app.
@Steve B
Actually the underlying tech is completely different. This car has a gas engine which the Tesla etc don't have. Which means a lot more work has to go into it to pair the two systems successfully than having only an electric motor.
it kinda looks like they're lining up behind gm's idea of a mechanical penis. kinda awkward.
Twenty years from now these people are going to look back at this picture of themselves standing next to this HUGE-ASS battery and shake their heads while laughing to themselves. The reason for their laughter will be obvious when the current technology of their time will have one person holding a user-replaceable battery (that has ten times the longevity of this one) in the palm of their hand that will store easily in the corner of a vehicle's trunk.
Think about the advancement of computers - from the mid 70's up to the 2000's. Battery technology will take a similar path now that research is focusing more on new battery technologies for mobile devices. I believe that a significant breakthrough in battery technology that will make this scenario possible is imminent within the next 5 to 10 years.
@rockarollr
I'm with you. Battery powered cars are the future, and we will be seeing some life changing battery technology in the next decade. The quicker this happens the better, the rest of world needs to use electric cars so that there is more gasoline for us gearheads `~`
@Luffy, not very funny or ingenious. Drink up your gas now and go to bed.
Batteries are not going to follow the same development, as there are limits to energy density. Unless we start craving for cars that reach only city speeds, or weigh less than the payload they're designed for, the 100 miles+ batteries are going to be bulkier than, well, what would be nice and utopian-futuristic. In the dystopian view, we're gonna have heavy, ungly and dangerous battery banks due to the safeties the ever lighter cells need.
But then again, a telephone line under the reign of modem could in theory not carry more than 56 kbps...
@rockarollr
esspecially when we look at the evolvement of other batteries during the last 20 yrs... like the AAs or something... Remember how huge and less capacity they had 20 yrs ago? No? Me neither...
@rockarollr plus, that hand held battery of the future you talk about can almost level a building when it overheats and explodes. Serious energy density you are talking about.
One factory does it all... makes hand grenades AND car batteries.... it is the future....
@tmarks11
But the thing you're not considering (that was mentioned in my original post) is the use of completely NEW battery technology that we can't quite perceive yet. What I'm talking about is energy storage in a whole new way...something that hasn't even been thought of yet. Maybe "density" will not even be a factor using whatever this future method may end up being.
There very well could (and I believe will) be a miraculous breakthrough at some point that will give use the ability to harness such energy creation and storage in a safe and efficient manner on a scale larger than we ever imagined up to now.
Think outside of the box...dare to dream!
(P.S. - I personally think the development of economical and safe hydrogen production and storage is the answer to future energy needs more so than anything else...and our planet will thank us, too!)
Bearing your teeth doesn't equal smiling ladies, just think about the bailout money for a real smile.
@bantam Government Motors = fail. Just like Barry.