Get to know the Zune HD>>California will be the "lead market" for the Chevy Volt when the electrically driven car is available at the end of next year, General Motors said Wednesday.
California was chosen because the state has the largest U.S. car market, and Californians are "known to be leaders in adopting groundbreaking new technologies," GM's vice president of global Chevrolet brand, Brent Deware, said in a statement pegged to this week's Los Angeles International Auto Show.
Production of the Volt is scheduled to start in late 2010. GM has not announced pricing for the 2011 model, though newly dethroned CEO Fritz Henderson acknowledged earlier this fall that the price would be about $40,000. (GM's board on Tuesday asked Henderson to resign, effective immediately.)
California, here we come.
(Credit: General Motors)As part of the California rollout, GM plans to make 100 Volts available to three utilities for testing. The cars will be used as fleet vehicles, and performance data will be collected via GM's OnStar in-car communications for a Department of Energy-run research program.
Financially strapped GM has a lot riding on the Chevy Volt. The car is designed to run for 40 miles on its lithium ion batteries and then use an engine-generator combination for longer rides. GM expects that most customers will do the majority of their driving on electric charge only, making the cost per mile cheaper than gas-only cars.
Even with the public excitement over electric cars, automakers are still not totally sure how consumers will adjust to the new technology and how electric components will operate in real-world conditions.
GM, as well as other automakers, plans to offer electric vehicles in certain regions that will invest in the infrastructure to support them. The California research program calls for the installation of 500 charging stations at people's homes, at businesses, and in public places.
One year before starting production of the Chevy Volt, General Motors engineers say they are confident in the performance and safety of the electric car's batteries.
GM executives gave an update on the car's plans on Tuesday, saying engineers are making some tweaks to the design but that they are on schedule.
The Volt's chief engineer, Andrew Farah, also implied that GM is close to moving ahead with a project to make a Cadillac that uses the same gas-electric power train that the Volt uses. Last week, there were reports that the Converj concept had been given the green light internally, with expected car delivery in 2013.
For the Volt, GM is preparing the battery and auto manufacturing, which will happen in its home state of Michigan, with the process and product validation scheduled to begin early next year, executives said.
In the meantime, GM engineers are testing the Volt's battery pack, called the Voltec, and putting 80 prototype vehicles through the paces. In addition to crash tests for safety, they are testing the car's performance on a range of conditions, including very hot and cold temperatures, and steep hills.
This crash test shows that the orange T-shape battery pack of the Volt is not impacted during frontal collision, says GM.
(Credit: General Motors)The Volt is a gas-electric hybrid, but unlike the Toyota Prius and other hybrids on the road now, the Volt moves only from electric motors. The gasoline engine is used to supply energy to the batteries through a generator.
Because it's a new car, GM still is trying to project what sort of performance to expect. Overall, engineers are happy, but they also know that climate conditions and driving style will affect the battery's performance, they said.
"Ten years is the target life (for the battery). Depending on how you use it and where you live, you could see significantly longer time," said David Wallace, engineering group manager for Voltec Battery Systems.
The biggest challenge is battery durability in very hot weather, he said. People who live in more temperate areas and do a lot of city driving will have more forgiving conditions, Wallace added.
"But even if you live in Phoenix, as long as you charge at night, and you run during the day, your battery will remain happy," he said.
During its testing, GM has to tune the chemistry of individual batteries, which will be supplied by LG Chem. Various tests, including crash tests, have indicated that battery safety is good, executives said.
For the car itself, auto engineers are now making adjustments to reduce the overall noise during times when the gas engine kicks on for longer rides.
Farah declined to say how big the gas tank will be, which will indicate what the overall driving range is, saying that decision will be made as late as possible.
Separately, Farah said GM's plan to produce an Opel in Europe that uses the Voltec powertrain is still on target, with a schedule roughly one year behind the Volt.
Yesterday's clip was all about some blazing hot custom made Ford Mustangs making their presence felt at the 2009 SEMA Show last week in Las Vegas. Chevrolet reportedly also got in on the act with pimpin' out Camaros a plenty for SEMA insiders and car enthusiasts alike. Well, if you're thinking Dodge didn't have something similar up their sleeves, then like Judas Priest says "you've got another thing coming."
Today's Web video features Edward Loh from Motortrend.com gushing over some flashy custom 2009 Dodge Challengers, and with damn good reason. These Challengers are spectacular to look at, and a hot green convertible in particular is given a lot of camera time for its blingtastic wheels and 560HP V-8 engine. Roughly half way through the video, we get to scope a red Challenger that's been infused with a Viper V-10 engine and all sorts of custom options built in. Anyone who thinks that modern American muscle cars aren't something to get excited about should probably think again.
This last week saw yet another big auto show in the form of the 2009 SEMA Show at the Las Vegas Convention Center. The show ran from November 2 to Friday November 6, and boy, was there a ton of eye candy for us car enthusiasts. However, the SEMA Show was not open to the public--only auto industry insiders were allowed inside these doors full of what SEMA refers to as "automotive specialty products." This video is a teaser of some of the many automotive delights that were on display at this year's event.
Here we go with another quality highlight video from the folks at Inside Line courtesy of Edmunds.com. This highlight reel features Camaros galore, plenty of Ford mods, and the stateside debut of the $375,000 Lexus LFA. Other notable vehicles include the Hyundai Genesis (with the midcar engine), Kia's first foray into racecars, and the Brooks & Dunn sponsored Toyota Tundra with an onboard barbecue grill--yummy.
One good thing about when I get flamed on this blog is sometimes it gives me ideas for things to search for video to use within this forum. A couple days ago, a reader mentioned that I should go to the upcoming SEMA Show that will take place the first week of November in Las Vegas. Of course, I'd love to go but unfortunately my day job takes precedence and I won't be able to get away. Sigh. Anyway, I'd recently been writing about Camaros, and coincidentally I stumbled upon a Camaro vid taken from a SEMA event roughly a year ago. I thought this was all a sign, so it made it onto my blog for today - a perfect Sunday clip, and here it is.
I had mentioned before in this blog that my favorite Chevy Camaro was the 1969, and here we got a Camaro as restored by YearOne. Here Kevin King from Y1 discusses how they were approached to create basically a new car out of an existing Camaro, changed its color from blue to lightning yellow, dropped in the LSX engine and customized to Nth degree. While King does a good job explaining what all was done to this car, I think the images speak for themselves.
Wow. I write a piece a couple days ago about the 2010 and upcoming 2011 Chevrolet Camaro, and next thing I know a representative from Chevrolet communications is posting a comment to my blog. Yeah, it was regarding a discrepancy in the information relayed in the video blog, but to me that's still pretty cool. As this gentleman pointed out, there are custom car builders out there who are co-opting the Chevy Camaro make and putting out non-GM versions of the Camaro for the consumer who wants one done their way. Apparently, Hennessey Performance Engineering does just that, and they've splattered videos of their souped-up and supercharged Camaros all over YouTube. And here's just one of several videos they've done to hype their business of making bad-ass cars even badder.
In this Web video HPE puts a reportedly specialized 2010 Chevy Camaro SS up to a dyno to see what kind of power this beast can bring to its wheelbase, and its horsepower is certainly impressive. (Love the hum of that engine!) Then a little after the 2-minute mark we get to see that same Camaro roar by on a two-lane highway. Like Borat would say, the view is "nice!"
Automakers are expected to agree this week to use the SAE J1772 five-pin charging system and coupler as the standard connection for plug-in vehicles.
(Credit: SAE International)The Society of Automotive Engineers International, the organization that sets the standard for aerospace and automotive industry technology, will vote this week to make the SAE J1772 charging system and coupler the standard connection for plug-in vehicles, according to a General Motors executive.
Britta Gross, director of GM's Global Energy Systems, shared the news during a live Web chat at GM's Fastlane blog on Tuesday evening.
"As Jon Lauckner said this morning, the Volt comes with a 120-V charger and if you can find a normal outlet, you can charge the Volt," Gross said.
She went on to add that all major automakers will eventually equip cars with the same charging coupler when their respective plug-in cars in the pipeline reach the consumer market because a standard agreement was being reached.
"Yes, GM's Gery Kissel is chair of the SAE J1772 standards committee. The standard is going to a vote this week after two and a half years of work. All major automakers are expected to agree to adhere to these charging standards. All infrastructure that goes in from now on should be J1772 compliant so all plug-in vehicles can use it," Gross said.
Gross is referring to the SAE J1772 or SAE electric vehicle conductive charging cable and coupler which has five pins and can be used with 120V or 240 V single phase electrical systems.
The agreement would allow charging stations throughout the world to plug in to any standard plug-in vehicle in the same way nozzles at gas stations are standardized to fit gas- or diesel-powered vehicles, respectively.
About a week ago, I read an article online about how automotive industry insiders were recently given a sneak preview of the 2011 Chevrolet Camaro convertible, which is reportedly slated to begin production in the near future. With all the dire financial straits General Motors has found itself in the last few years, this is definitely good news--I'm sure that I'm not the only who would hate to see such a classic American muscle car tradition bite the dust.
In fact, there seemed to be a lot of rumbling amongst industry reports that the 2010 Camaro might have been a concept-only vehicle not for sale to the general public. Thankfully, that has turned out not to be the case, and based on an online search, the 2010 Chevy Camaro convertible seems to be readily available at many Northern California dealerships. And while the general public has yet to get a glimpse of the 2011 model, we can however marvel at the 2010 Chevrolet Camaro convertible via Web video, and here's one that will give you the low down on what this newest edition is all about.
This brief synopsis vid comes from those geeks at Edmunds.com (whose videos and analysis are almost always succinct and top notch) where they take the 2010 Chevrolet Camaro convertible for a spin along a Pacific Coast Highway. And Edmunds notes that at the time of this production, the Camaro was still a giant question mark in the mass sale plans of GM. Is it the most amazing Camaro you've ever seen? Uh, no (the '69 Camaro gets my vote for baddest Camaro ever). But I'd rather have a modest modern Camaro running the streets than not to exist at all.
About 50 years ago, a nonprofit organization called the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety was founded to conduct research on consumer automotive safety and preventive measures to reduce vehicular crashes and personal injuries that occur in car crashes. Recently the IIHS made news by crash testing a car from the era of its inception, the 1959 Chevy Bel Air, against a 2009 Chevy Malibu. The video for the Chevy crash test is readily available, but to sum it up, automobile safety features have come a long way, baby.
Today's video clip is also part of the IIHS crash experiment archives, and we see its test of two recently made Toyota sedans going head-to-head. This frontal offset test shows that the Toyota Yaris is clearly less safe for driver and passenger than the Toyota Camry. Unlike the crash test from yesterday's video featuring Chevy cars from notably different periods, the disparity in safety between these comparably aged cars Toyota makes is intriguingly similar to the Chevy crash test. I know the dollar-saving attributes of a Toyota make it slam-dunk for a lot of car buyers, they still might want to consider the "what if" factor of an automobile crash and which car provides them with the best survival odds.
Former Formula 1 driver and current NASCAR star Juan Pablo Montoya has been attracting a lot of attention lately. He seems to have ruffled a few feathers of NASCAR fans from his interview following his 3rd place finish this past Sunday at the first installment of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Chase race where he talks about his will to play nasty with this Sunday's race winner Mark Martin. But a better reason for Montoya to be getting so much press is the way he qualified for the Chase race in New Hampshire, where he not only succeeded in achieving the time to beat for pole position, but also set a new track record in qualifying for a Chase race.
This video is a clip showing JPM in action qualifying for the Sylvania 300 race where he set the time to beat at 28.545 (133.431 mph), which only Tony Stewart came close to matching (Stewart's time clocked in at roughly 132 mph). Even though Montoya's the only one on the track to compare to, the speed and velocity at which he's running at is quite noticeable to the eye, even on this shoddy web video. Apparently in the process Montoya also set a new track record at New Hampshire Motor Speedway...not a bad feat for a young NASCAR whipper-snapper. Between this and his performance at the Sylvania 300, JPM can clearly be considered a top contender in NASCAR.
