If we have not heard much from the Volt lately, and too much from GM with its dire financial state, its new battery lab will directly help the Volt.
The gist is that it is hard to say with certainty when the Volt will come out into production. The series plug-in hybrid, PHEV know as an extended range electric vehicle, ER-EV for GM walks a fine line between performance and affordability.
Technically Speaking. If the Volt is a PHEV, and specifically an ER-EV, it has to do battle on many grounds. Its batteries must last at least 10 years, as mandated by the sate of California. That means they must be maintained at the most efficient charge level, which means, not too depleted. It would also follow that the battery pack will not be allowed to run empty, which makes the 40 miles on electricity alone improbable for now. All of this has to boost the miles per gallon to 100. GM’s engineers have an interesting balancing work in that area alone.
GM’s Lab. On June 8th, GM finally opened its Global Battery Systems Lab. What this mean is that the company can now concentrate on tweaking the technology for its Volt. GM is stated to include ultracapacitors in its Volt which should spice things up a bit on the performance side.
GM still has a lot of work in front to sort out the release of the car. Already the price has been bumped up a little, as it should have been predictable, to $39,000, before incentives. This will place it in the $30,000 to 50,000 market range and along the future Tesla Motors Models S and Coda Automotive.