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GM’s Electric Plans Going Global
Written by: Autocar staff   http://www.autocar.co.uk
08/21/2008 - 11:58 AM
London, UK
 
Flextreme’s ideas will sit on next Astra’s platform. » More Photos

With the U.S. automotive market in turmoil and clamoring for fuel-efficient small cars that its makers cannot provide, General Motors cannot afford to make mistakes in its future strategy, and Bob Lutz, GM vice-chairman and product supremo, is betting big on E-Flex. Lutz, who says the company’s E-Flex technology is the most exciting development in his automotive career, thinks it could power more than a million cars per year in 10 years’ time.

The first E-Flex cars will be based on the “Delta” platform, which will be used for the next Vauxhall Astra and forthcoming Chevrolet Cruze.

This was a key point in the deal that GM Europe chairman Carl-Peter Forster put to British Prime Minister Gordon Brown at the recent British motor show. The next Astra will be made at Ellesmere Port on Merseyside, UK, so the first European E-Flex model, planned for 2011 and expected to be a Vauxhall or Saab, could also be built there. Thus the UK could meet Brown’s ambition and become the European capital for electric cars.

In return, GM wants the UK to champion its scheme for “super credits” in forthcoming EU carbon dioxide legislation, which will require a manufacturer’s fleet average to be under 130g/km. Cars emitting less than 50g/km of CO2 would have a multiple count in calculating that average, so GM wouldn’t have to spend so much on lowering the emissions of its conventional cars and it could reduce the price of the E-Flex models.

E-Flex is the hybrid system that has been shown in the Chevrolet Volt and Opel Flextreme concepts. These are plug-in electric cars with small combustion engines for range extension; a 1.0-liter gasoline motor running at an optimum constant speed will charge the batteries only when they are near to depletion, allowing the car to keep going for up to 300 miles.

For the average E-Flex driver covering 50 miles a day, all of the running will be electric; the gasoline engine will not be used and the batteries will be recharged at low cost by plugging into the mains overnight.

But as things stand the cars
will still be expensive: an estimated 40,000 Euro ($59k) for the first-generation model. “The initial price will be higher than we would like, because of the cost of the lithium-ion batteries,” said Lutz. “But we think it is within an affordable price band and reasonable compared with other advanced technologies.”

The Chevrolet version in the U.S. is expected to sell 10,000 units in the first year (2011) and 60,000 in the second. Forster told Brown that he anticipated European sales of 30,000 a year. Beyond the official figures, Lutz says his gut reaction is to predict a million E-Flex sales worldwide sometime after 2015.
Lutz wants to make a million electric cars per year. » More Photos

Lutz says, with a “probability bordering on certainty,” that batteries will be included in the price. Since the lithium-ion battery packs will cost $10,000 each, GM has been investigating leasing them separately or getting the utility companies to own the batteries and provide them as part of an electricity supply deal.

Because of the high cost of the battery packs, GM feels that the proposal of Shai Agassi’s Project Better Place to have service stations swapping ready-charged batteries for run-down units is impractical. Forster agrees that a standard charging infrastructure is required to kick-start electric car sales but, in its absence – or while it is being developed – the range extender will make E-Flex cars viable.

Since it embarked on this program, GM has become even more convinced of its future importance. It will announce shortly its chosen supplier of the lithium-ion cells – it has been working with CPI, owned by LG of Korea, and Continental – but now wants to take a larger part of battery technology in-house.

“The whole battery pack – cell chemistry, pack construction, control and monitoring systems – is new core knowledge for the auto industry,” Lutz said. “We see the mainstream rapidly transitioning to electrification and have recently brought together 500 engineers for this purpose.”

Ray Hutton/Autocar
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