Transformation was the key word on the lips of General Motors Canada president and general manager Kevin Williams as he spoke about the new Chevrolet Volt to the Vancouver Board of Trade December 8.
Williams was the featured speaker at a luncheon titled Driving Forward: the New GM, promoting the newly announced electric car partnership between Chevrolet Canada and BC Hydro. He used the Volt as a symbol of the transformation that his company has undergone over the past few years.
“Simply put, the Chevrolet Volt is the world’s first electric vehicle with extended range,” he said. “It’s a clear sign of the transformation that’s happening at GM.”
The Volt runs on a 16-kWh lithium ion battery pack that weighs 375 pounds (170 kilograms) and can run for 40 to 80 kilometres on one charge, depending on driving conditions. The car switches to a small gasoline engine-generator when the battery runs out, allowing it to drive a further 500 kilometres, eliminating what Williams calls “range anxiety” – the fear of being stranded far from home with a dead battery.
“My boss has been driving a Chevrolet Volt for two months,” said Williams. “He used up half a litre of gasoline in two months, and he commutes every day in and out of the city of Detroit. That’s transformational in its nature.”
The Volt’s battery technology is what sets the Volt apart from past electric car prototypes, Williams claimed. “This technology allows for it to be dense enough to support long driving periods on electric use, but lightweight enough to ensure that you don’t have to have batteries twice as big as the one you see in the Volt today.”
Although the Volt is similar to traditional hybrid cars that combine electric and gas propulsion, GM prefers to describe it as an extended-range electric vehicle because, under short-range driving conditions, it uses only electricity.
Limited production of 10,000 units is already underway in the United States, where the Volt was launched in select markets in November.
Canadian production and a limited launch is expected to begin in the second quarter of 2011 in Vancouver, Victoria, Toronto, Oshawa, Ottawa and Quebec City.
In the U.S, the Volt retails at $41,000. Canadian pricing hasn’t yet been announced, although the Ontario and Quebec governments are respectively offering an $8,230 purchase incentive and $3,000 income tax rebate.
“GM is a company that has been around for over 100 years, and in 100 years companies need to transform themselves,” Williams said. “It was a combination of things over time that lead to the restructuring of GM – including a very severe downturn in the economy.”
General Motors was severely impacted by the 2008 recession and decline in auto sales, which ultimately led to a dramatic restructuring of the company as the American and Canadian governments bailed it out. GM was forced to sell off several of its famous car brands, close factories and lay off thousands of employees.
After his speech, Williams answered audience questions addressing common concerns about battery disposal and the necessary infrastructure that would be required to support a fleet of electric cars.
“Scrapping programs that allow us to be able to dispose of that battery in a more environmentally friendly way is the way that we’re going forward,” he said. On September 21, General Motors US and Swiss power technology company ABB announced plans to research the possibility of reusing spent Volt batteries in large-scale power grids.
Williams acknowledged that work still needs to be done in order for electric vehicles to go mainstream.
“The ability to create an infrastructure to support all electric vehicles is not emerging today,” he said, acknowledging it will be a long time before electric vehicles replace traditional hybrids and gas-powered vehicles.
“Technology is emerging dramatically fast … but it will be years before electric vehicles bypass internal combustion engines.
“The market needs to develop, the infrastructure needs to develop, the support from the government perspective in terms of incentivizing the consumer needs to take place … it’ll be speculative to say how soon that will be, but it’ll develop over time like all other technologies.”
Chevrolet and BC Hydro are placing 15 of the automaker’s newest electric vehicles into B.C. business fleets next summer in what are the latest efforts to make B.C. a leader in Canada in electric vehicle adoption.
News that 15 Chevrolet Volts will be placed into B.C. fleets follows other milestones this year in the adoption of electric vehicles in the province.
Richmond’s Novex Couriers is adding more electric vehicles to its fleet next year when Vancouver’s first order of Nissan Leafs arrives.
Vancouver’s Rapid Electric Vehicles, which refits gas-powered vehicles with electric drivetrains, and Vancouver-based electrical contractor, Viridian Power, announced in August plans to wire every major Canadian city with a network of charging stations for refuelling electric cars by 2012.
Chevy’s Volt has a driving range of about 580 kilometres. For the first 40 to 80 kilometres, the vehicle drives gas-free and produces zero tailpipe emissions by using electricity stored in the battery. When the battery runs low, an engine-generator engages to provide electricity, extending the Volt’s driving range by about 500 kilometres.
BC Hydro said it will add two of the 15 vehicles to its own fleet. BC Hydro also said B.C.’s hybrid adoption rate is 2.5 times higher than other provinces.