40 miles of electricity. Sounds pretty arbitrary, right? Wrong.

Yesterday, I wrote Volt EV Range: Is 40 enough? Would 80 be better? Should GM increase the Volt's EV range as battery technology develops?

Well, let's first analyze the American driver and the future of the American driver. Around 80 percent of American commutes are 40 miles or less. And, as people continue their migration back into cities, these commutes are plagued by traffic, congestion and sub-20 mile per hour speeds - conditions that bring out the worst in today's conventional vehicles.

These horrible conditions, however, bring out the very best in hybrid cars and they will also bring out the best in plug-ins, such as the Chevy Volt, thanks to regenerative braking.

Thus, for the average commuter slugging through their 40 miles or less of daily congestion, the Volt will require no petroleum, just 80 cents, or less, worth of electricity, depending on when you charge. That's right. 80 cents is the high end.

That's cheap, right? So why not try to add more batteries and get the Volt's EV range up to 100 miles, which probably covers 90 percent of daily commutes?

Why? Diminishing returns.

That extra 10 percent of EV range has high costs. In fact, it would be far cheaper to just use gasoline, or some cellulosic ethanol, for this small percent of driving.

Plus, that other 10 percent of driving, when you are traveling hundreds of miles, you don't have to carry around all that extra battery weight. And, you'll never suffer from range anxiety.

Even more interesting, as battery technology develops, GM would prefer to use those advancements to make the Volt cheaper, rather than adding range that might not make financial sense. Hence, 40 miles isn't the goal for the first Volt, but the next generation of Volts as well.

Certainly, if driving patterns indicate that 30 or 50 would be better standards, then GM would make adjustments. Today, however, the data seems to demonstrate that 40 is the magic number.

But will the Volt really achieve 40 miles of electricity?

I asked Tony Posawatz, Volt vehicle line director, about some research coming out of a Argonne National Laboratory Conference on batteries that questioned the Volt's 40 miles of electric range, claiming that aggressive driving and AC use could push Volt EV range well under 20 miles.

Tony first told me that Argonne would eventually test GM's Volt batteries, but they are not yet testing GM's final product.

Then, I asked Tony about the Volt's 40 miles of electric range if drivers were aggressive or used lots of AC and what researchers at Argonne stated.

"Well, one of the things that we're gonna do, is we will take these vehicles now, our next level of vehicles, with real batteries and run them through those tests and there will be some degradation.

They are not incorrect in the assumption there will be some degradation because we use the standards that we have. Right now our target, and we feel confident, is 40 miles for the city cycle and 40 miles ....highway cycle. Those are the two cycles that exist today.

Will people drive these vehicles harder, and will the mileage in EV range be subject to your behaviour? Yes.

It's premature to make any initial assessments as to how much, or what, until we test the vehicles. That's something for a future date......There is some variation around that.

If you are an abusive driver, temperature conditions, or if you feel like you need to go full comfort, that's that way with any vehicle."

I concluded my interview by asking if sub-20 miles of EV range was a possibility.

"Don't know. We don't know right now."

So, yes there will be variability, and the way you drive and the conditions you drive in will affect EV range, just as they affect hybrid vehicle fuel economy.

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Labels: Chevy Volt electric vehicle concept, Hybrid Vehicles, plug-in hybrid vehicles

posted by Dahcredyns at 8:22 AM

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