I was recently able to interview Tony Posawatz on camera at the 2008 Detroit Auto Show concerning progress with the Chevy Volt.
Here's a link to the video interview:
http://evtransportal.com/gmvolt.html
I'm Curious what people think of the Volt?

 

I wasn't inspired by the interview. For example, "battery last 2 years," doesn't inspire confidence that Posawatz really has accurate battery information. Too bad they don't have any electric test EV1s. However, the Volt architecture is so strong that success looks very likely as long as they don't fixate on one or another technical 'perfection.'

There is an old Russian proverb that "perfect is the enemy of good enough." GM has put out a lot 'paper' about LiON as if NiMH doesn't exist. I don't own stock in NiMH batteries but GM scientists are not at the leading edge of LiON technology. Betting the whole project on LiON sounds like 'cover' in case management decides to kill the program.

Bob Wilson

 

RE: "Battery last two years" If you listen to the video again you will notice Tony says the following: "It's a very expensive battery system and ONE DOES NOT WANT TO HAVE TO REPLACE IT EVERY TWO YEARS".

if you are indeed interested in facts and accuracy, please don't misquote people's statements.

 

I agree with your full text quote and re-enforces my low opinion of his statement. The reason is the RV-4s are still rolling around and our hybrid batteries are becoming the 'energizer bunny' for longevity. Yes, a badly design car can eat up its batteries in an even shorter time than two years but it is hard to claim this is the fault of the batteries, which is what I got from his comment.

Now I don't follow the EV community closely since many of them are 'one of a kind' home-built. But I don't get the impression they are having to swap out the batteries every two years. This is why his comment struck me as being somewhere between ignorance or hyperbole.

This past week I've been using an MRC 989 to test some used NHW11 and an NHW20 battery. What I'm finding is these batteries have 'like new' Ahr capacity:

What I'm finding is these cell assemblies are coming in at 5.5 and 6.5 Ahr capacity. The one measuring 5.5 Ahr is being retested using 0.1C charge rate and may come in closer to the original 6.5 Ahr.

I'll be the first to admit that this is a small sample set, three NHW11 and one NHW20 modules. However, I have 38 untested cells in the car port and will pickup a failed traction battery assembly with two bad and 36 potentially good cells on Sunday. When I finish building out my super pack and swap it out with my current traction battery, we're talking about a sample population of 100 NHW11 cell assemblies:

So when I hear someone repeating what sounds like similar 'battery BS' that skeptics have been touting, I tend not to be terribly forgiving. Add to that my direct observations of Prius traction battery modules and I'm not quite so tolerant when when someone sounds like they are 'blowing smoke.'

I appreciate that he took the time to give the interview. Let's be thankful I wasn't there to ask follow-up questions. I like the Volt architecture but feel it should have been the follow-on to the EV-1 and is about 8 years late:

http://www.electrifyingtimes.com/gmprecept.html

Bob Wilson

 

Bob- Thanks for the photos. I think most people will be surprised at how small these hybrid batteries are.

I'm sill amazed I can drive my 4000 pound escape... uphill no less... with 250 "D" batteries. Pretty impressive, really. And that's while being gentle with them. -John

 

http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...arch&plindex=6