Akerson Drops Hints at Future Chevrolet Volt – 200 Mile All-Electric Range?

I've had a Volt for two years now, and I love it.  I was hesitant to buy it, but I find it has plenty of power and hardly burns any gas.  I live 14 miles from work, and I just filled up with gas for the first time in 6 months.  I think I averaged about 800 miles per gallon of gas used.  This car has very few limitations.  I dove from coast to coast taking me through the mountains during January snow storms and extremely cold temperatures without any problems.

When designing the car they looked at the fact that something like 80% of the population lives within 15 miles of their work and designed a car for that large portion of the population. 

On paper it sounds great that one of these cars could go 200 miles on a charge, but in reality it wouldn't make much of a difference to the majority of the population.  I don't think I would pay more for this extra electric milage, but it would probably make it easier to market the car.

I've owned trucks, SUV's, and cars, but this is my favorite.

Hopefully more people will start buying them so that GM will continue to invest and improve upon the technology.  Hopefully they will benefit from Tesla's release of their technology.

It's a great car.  Go get one!

Lets hope this makes it to the ELR and the ELR only. The only reason why people would buy an ELR is because theyd expect something more than a 80K car with the technology and parts from a 30K car...

IF Chevrolet can meet or come close to the three targets, the 2G Volt could be the green segment home run they were hoping the first one would be.

I've seen a lot in the past few years about newer technology for batteries, so a huge jump in capacity/cost/weight is possible, given what I've seen.  But it would still be surprising, since most of it is untested commerically yet.  And a car is the last place you want real-world testing for that kind of thing.  I would expect advances in batteries for consumer electronics first, then the jump into increased size for cars.  And perhaps they have been working with someone behind closed doors on tech we haven't heard about.  I'm sure they would pay a huge sum to someone with the right tech, for both exclusivity and keeping it quiet until the reveal!

I'm hoping they create a better hybrid system for the SUVs.  We would like a Tahoe to replace our Grand Cherokee once our family grows a bit, but the mileage penalty is pretty severe!  May have to go Durango, unless GM really steps up to the plate.  But back to the article; an even better Volt would be my next commuter car!  I'm tempted to get a Volt 1.0 as it is.

This is the second OEM this week to talk about higher density batteries. Maybe something is happening.

I do not see how they are going to get 200 miles out a vehicle that has room for only 60 miles of battery (they only use basically half of the battery for buffering purposes). That would mean that the power density of the battery pack would have to increase 4 times in 2 years and that seems unlikely. Even if they were to go with an undercarriage battery pack like the Tesla and the T battery pack they already have I don't see how it will work on this platform as there is little room for flat packs under the car either. 

I will not address the price other than to say that it also seems quite optimistic to say the least. 

I love the Volt and what it has done (although the Spark EV is their best yet). GM must have discovered some battery technology that is revolutionary and not just evolutionary. 

Electric cars are here to stay.  It's not just talk.

While 200 is pretty far fetched, I can totally see 100-120 miles withing the realm of possibility. People seem to forget... the volt has been in production for 3 years now. The supply chain is solidified, mass production techniques have been optimized and when you consider the initial engineering and development, the GM engineers have a decade of experience under their belt.

With regard to the engineering in particular, having 10 years learning from ones own mistakes and analyzing their triumphs serves GM well. And gives it a significant advantage over the competition just now entering the segment.

The best way to go for an extended range vehicle is DIESEL-electric, not gasoline-electric.  Check out the VW XL1 if you really want to see state of the art, not Tesla.  Why do you think train locomotives are diesel electric?  Answer- because they are the most efficient way of moving mass known to man.  Ferd. Porsche still proves to be the best vehicle engineer ever.  He was doing diesel electric in the 1920s designing and building 4wd cars with 4 little electric motors in the wheels.  Diesels can run at their absolute peak efficiency with low RPMs charging those batteries at VERY VERY low fuel consumption rates.

The current performance, hell even the styling is fine, but get it off of that tuna can Delta II platform.

30K for 200 miles of electric range, ain't gonna happen.

After 35,000 miles on my Volt all I want in the next one is double the range (80 miles) and a FIFTH SEAT!!!  :)

That would make me stick with the Range Extended Volt and not trade it in on a Model S.

Or maybe a 200+ mile range without the Range Extender.  Either way I REALLY NEED A FIFTH SEAT.

I like what Chevy has been able to do since the bailout.  They have become forward thinkers, and looking at Tesla as a benchmark is a great idea - it's who they are going to have to beat once Tesla starts making less expensive models (if they survive, but considering how well investors have rewarded them for innovation, they are doing quite well).  For anyone who wants to classify GM as Government Motors, fine, have your political term.  But don't overlook how quickly they have rebounded under new leadership since the bailout (Volt, Cruze, Impala, Spark, CTS, ATS, Colorado. Silverado, Sierra, and Corvette are all competitive if not the best in their respective market (note the absence of the malibu and equinox from that list)). 

The Volt needs a three cylinder onboard, or at least an engine that can be better used for its purpose (I would like 50 mpg, although I regularly get 40 mpg out of the onboard generator when I need it).  As a Volt owner, it was the best choice for me in suburban America for a less than $50,000 Electric Car.  As many Leaf owners and Volt owners will attest, winter driving and scorching summer heat both kill range, and having the onboard generator allows you to use the Volt as a primary car when you don't live in the middle of a green city.  Does the Volt have flaws?  Yes.  But to see GM, and most of the industry, focusing on making better performance while being environmentally conscious is a refreshing new direction to see.

okay, lets get this strait GM with its crap electric car track record, is going to try to take on tesla, which has an incredible track record.  I'm all for increasing the relevance of the volt but if gm goes up against tesla its going to lose, badly.  Although, I look forward to seeing gm try, if they can even make something have as good I will be impressed and most likely the customer base will be too.

Very telling statement when the head of giant GM says they are looking to tiny Tesla as a benchmark. It shows what an innovator Elon Musk has become on a limited budget. Impressive.l

Hopefully they will out similar technology in the ELR without jacking up the price. In fact I would say that it should go there first to boost attention to the ELR and establish GMs electric cred then put it in the Volt.

I cans see 200 mile EV range and $30'000 base price as possible but likely not on the same machine at the same time... i could easily see them offering a short range but inexpensive high volume model and a longer range model maybe for bragging rights...

With the the Malibu literally the only blunder in GMs arsenal, I would not put it pass GM to hit this benchmark. As this technology continues to gain acceptance in the marketplace(Ferrari, McLaren, and Porsche anyone?), and with the continued improvements, this is very possible. I mean look what Tesla has done with the Model S. People have no probs dropping $80k for the a EV.

This is the third company to promise a 200 miles EV car, mitsubishi has just annouce a 200 miles ev car with a joint venture battery plant with bosch, mitsubishi and GS yuasa,  and renault/nissan earlier in the week promise a 200 miles EV car.

Translation: Tesla, a bunch of kids in a garage compared to GM, showed them how to do EVs right.  

GM goes back to the drawing board.....

BD

My point exactly! The Volt was one huge leap in gas electric motoring. Just like the initial Prius, it took that to get here!

@ostar99 Its a nice point with one minor flaw, because of the volts specific (and high unorthodox) design that allows it to be both a series hybrid (where the power goes from the engine to a generator to an electric motor to the tarmac) and a parallel hybrid (where both the electric motor and the gas engine drive the wheels).  specifically for the volt at high way speeds, assuming the battery has gone flat, the engine directly drives the front wheels through a fixed gear reduction, which would be fine if the gas engine were not turning at such a relatively high rate.  which is fine for a gas motor but as we all know diesels and high rpms don't get along all that well.  in short if this were a "normal hybrid" (an idea as novel as a normal human), switching to diesel would be at least worth investigating, but because or the volts specific design its less likely to work.

@Eric the Red that really should be their number 1 priority really.

i to would like to see a more rugged like GMC crossover version :D 

@DM23You left off the Equinox on purpose.....It may not be class leading but is still very competitive. It is bigger than an Escape or Rav4 and when they came out in late 09 as 2010 models there was an order back log for a few months. Anyway, my wife and I have one and it has been very good. Not perfect but good. I have been stopped by people at the gas station, car wash, and jiffy lube asking me about it.

@casey the Volt because of its petrol engine is not classifed by the EPA as an all electric vehicle and it has been tossed around in Congress by both Democrats and Republicans to take away the Volt's all electric rebates.

Vehicles like the Volt,by their very definiation are PZEVs due to their petrol engines..I got the GM people to admit that at the 2013 New York International Auto Show

Why and how would it lose to Tesla? Elaborate? Tesla is ALL electric. So in hindsight, wouldn't the gas-electric be more technologically advanced? And, please don't leave out the 3 fires in 3 weeks from "road debris". I love the advancements Tesla has made, but they're from squeaky clean

Tesla is just as "government motors" as GM is. But nobody talks about their loans tho...

@TheCatholicBoat I don't think they will put it on the ELR first simply because it came second and usually updates are given in one of two forms.  A.) all models of a platform are updated at the same time (focus software updates are a good example of this), or B.) models are updated in the order they were introduced this generally works best when the higher cost (with a greater development budge per part) is the first in the order of updates.  now because the ELR is so new updating it so soon would a bit of an issue because half the point of the ELR is to reduce R and D per unit costs for the volt and if it starts making its own development costs it makes it only half as relevant.  because of that fact I would say it is mostly likely that GM will update both the ELR and the Volt at near-as-makes-no-difference the same time.

@TheCatholicBoat 

They jacked up the price on the ELR so they could cash in, and could keep prices down on Volt through that ROI and Economies of Scale.  Not that anybody is really dumb enough to buy a $75k ELR

GM foolishly thinks that because people are buying $80k Teslas, that The People will spend $75k on a GM EV. 

Dopes....

@Alex daOriginal so either its all talk or they have something special up their sleeve.

They could do it if they want to lose even more money on the volt. As it stands, they are already losing 10-15k on each one.

I give GM credit for taking control of their own business. The same can't be said for toyota, who has no skill or talent, so they just go to tesla and open their check book and buy batteries from them. Speaking of, how are those tesla batteries in the rav4 ev selling?

@Black Dynamite Online Volt was launched as being to expensive for GMs target demographic and to low brow for it's price bracket demographic. Tesla's target demographic was accurate with it's price bracket demographic.

thus Tesla appears to sell better. once Volt attains an affordable price it will more accessible to it's target demographic and sell much better as it's target demographic is much larger then Tesla's is. that and the range extender and price allow Volt to be the only car many need, while the pure EV Tesla is basically a second or third vehicle for the 1%

@casey @ostar99 Yes Casey I agree 100% not for a Volt- It would have to be a different drivetrain.  The one in the the 20's designed by Porsche actually had no drivetrain- just electric motors in each wheel getting electric power from a generator run by the small diesel!  Just like a diesel electric locomotive- with the benefit of AWD..

@Jonathan Miller @casey by Gen2 if the 30'000 price tag is reached they won't nead it as badly anyways xD

@Jonathan Miller @casey the rebate is based on battery size and not weather or not it has a petrol engine, they can't the rebate away just because they don't like the car.

@srt_charga okay to condense my argument to a main point I'm just going to point out the simple issue of weight.  the 2 heaviest parts of a conventional car are the engine and the transmission, and in an electric car is far and away the battery, but the simplicity of the design (i.e. it generally dose not need a big elaborate cooling system, exhaust or intake system , or a significantly heavier multispeed transmission), it can manage to weigh less and cut through the air better, despite the fact that lower specific energy of the batteries still requires a lot of them for descent range.  the problem with putting a gas engine and a big battery pack together is that, unlike peanut butter and chocolate, you end up with the worst of both parts with very little of the benefits of either.  this would be like putting primo steak in a health nut style smoothie, not only are you not eating healthier but you are also eating something that tastes absolutely terrible.  the weight and necessary breathe requirements (a.k.a. the necessity of  a grill) suck away the benefits of the pure electric car while the cost of the battery pack (which will have to be shrunk to keep the cars owner from needing a CDL to drive it) kill the cars gas engine efficiency and drive costs crazy.  in short picking one or the other is better than trying to make a steak smoothie.

@srt_charga they paid their loans back way before anyone else, I think they paid them back like 8 years early, and tesla is not really "as government motors as GM" because the US government NEVER AQUIRED ANY OF TESLA'S STOCK, while it did acquire some of both GM and Chrysler groups which is why government motors (a term which I am not fond of but will use here to convey my response) is appropriate for GM but not for Tesla.

How is it cashing in if nobody is buying it?

@SHTNONU  

Toyota has forgotten more about this business than GM will ever know.  One needed to be bought by the government, and the other is Toyota, with a market cap and stock value many times what GM is worth, or will ever be worth.  Now onto your ignorance......

Toyota built hybrids from a nothing to dominating a market that now has every maker jumped on their bandwagon, or just flat out buying a license to use their technology.  Toyota taught the entire industry what The People wanted.  

GM has failed as an EV maker, with a poor value, a poor pricing strategy, and now Nissan is teaching them how to move product with the current Leaf easily outselling the Volt.  

They won't field something the market wants for another 3 years, so why don't you pat them on the back?  That's something to be proud of.....

BD

^^^^ that was for db

It's not crazy. In fact, I am very smart enough to understand that without gov't intention, our auto industry would've ceased to exist as we know of it. I didn't mean to come off accusatory or uninformed. And your points are well taken.

@srt_charga according to Webster the definition of semantics is

the language used (as in advertising or political propaganda) to achieve a desired effect on an audience especially through the use of words with novel or dual meanings

so you use a word that that has both novel AND a dual meaning and then when I dispel one of those meaning, you accuse me of semantics when I have not used any, are you familiar with the term hypocrite?   

but, yes tesla did take a government loan, so do a lot of first time home buyer's, so did the inventors of the microchip (although they were "much worse" because the government was also the only buyer of microchips they got government loans to make a product that only the government would buy), the vaccine was developed using government money (and again the government was the main buyer) along with countless other technologies that private investors would not touch because they "were not bankable".  I know this seems insane to you but government involvement is not always a bad thing, it accounts for a lot of scientific advancement,. cooperation and private investors will only invest if they can see how their investment will come back in the form of a dollar sign, sometimes with a giant middle finger to everything else, and sometimes great advancements take a lot coaxing before real results are produced and the government is okay with that because its in it (ideally at least) for the good of its public, which sometimes does not translate into profits.  so, yes, tesla to government loans and then paid them back, but if you remember how loans work, that means the government got the money they gave tesla back, PLUS a little EXTRA.  So, the government made money giving tesla money, which is more than I can say for the money they gave to GM, which they actually had an net loss on (and quite a significant one).

Semantics. Did Tesla acquire government dollars or not? Obviously the private industry was not interested in backing Tesla, fearing they'll flop. Truth be told, I am glad Tesla has flourished on very limited designs, but I hear more to come.

@TheCatholicBoat  

I said that was their plan.  I also said it was a stupid one and wouldn't work.....

BD

Different markets.  People who buy BMW aren't interested in Volt and vice-versa.  The Volt is getting better, and so is the Leaf.  People with Leafs say they can get by with just the Leaf if their daily commute is less than 78 miles.  When they go on vacation, they simply rent a vehicle for a couple of weeks...that's a lot cheaper than owning a second vehicle.  But the Volt appeals to people who like some EV but want to be able to use the car for long trips...though its gas engine isn't as efficient as Prius or some other smaller cars.  Families say the Volt only holds 4 people too, while the Leaf holds 5. Both have their advantages.

@lasvegascolonel oh so kind of like the BMW i3 then? that makes sense. I hope they spark a series of related Voltletts from that though.  heck GM could pull what Toyota should do and make Volt it's own line XD

I don't believe they do, as those models have different components and are not comparable.  The Leaf has the same engine and since it doesn't burn gas, there are no emission differences.  Neither the Leaf nor the Volt have the EV range of the Tesla, though.  But you can be sure that both the Leaf and Volt will be increasing their EV range...and GM has said they will be putting in the Opel Adam engine (3 cylinder) in the new Volt.  This engine is lighter, more horsepower, and more fuel efficient than the current 4 cylinder, which was the only available engine that worked with the Cruze-electric.  GM says the next Volt will be designed as an electric vehicle from the ground up, not using the Cruze platform. That sounds like a good move to me.

@lasvegascolonel does Autoblog Green include the Opel/Vaux Ampera and Holden VOlt to the CHevy Volt sales numbers?

Autoblog Green puts the Leaf ahead for September.  The real figures though are global, and Nissan continues to outsell.  Remember, Leaf is a pure EV.  GM may call Volt "extended range", but everyone else refers to it as a hybrid...but a decent one.  GM are not morons.  If you think they are, check their sales...Camaro still outsells Mustang and in other categories, they excel.

Easy there... I don't think GM was the #1 car manufacturer all those years by being complete morons. They had a reality check, and now it's back to creating first class vehicles. "Leaf easily outselling volt" you lost all credibility with that statement.

http://www.goodcarbadcar.net/2013/12/usa-car-sales-rankings-by-model-november-2013-ytd.html?m=1

Sorry, but the Volt is still outselling the much cheaper Leaf. And remember the Volt was and is the watermark for gas-electric.

The Leaf is not only outselling the Volt, but Leaf is also talking about extended range.  Right now, it gets about 75 miles range here, but in Europe where they don't test with A/C and use country roads, they're getting 124 miles.  The criticism I hear of Volt is that once it moves into its gas mode, it gets a not too impressive 35+ mpg.  Maybe that's why GM is considering a 3 cylinder Opel engine in the next Volt.  But the Prius line outsells all of these other vehicles together...and the new Prius line will get even better mpg than the current one.  And the plug-in Prius promises to provide more EV range too.  With Prius, you can have EV plus excellent mpg, whereas with Volt the gas mpg is not anywhere close to the Prius.