What would happen if your Chevy Volt’s battery pack got wet during a carwash?  What if you tried to drive it through a foot of standing water after a rainstorm?  What would happen if you lost control of your Chevy Volt and drove it into a canal?

Water and electricity do not go hand-in-hand, exactly, and despite the excitement and energy surrounding Chevy’s upcoming Volt EV, a number of people are still asking questions about the basic safety of the Volt’s powerful batteries.

GM took those concerns to heart, and released some rare “behind-the-scenes” commentary on the car’s underwater testing on GM’s VoltAge blog.

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GM’s recent “230″ PR campaign (previously covered HERE and HERE) has certainly caused a lot of controversy, most of it centered on the fact that the EPA initially “backed away” from the automaker’s optimistic (?) Chevy Volt mileage claims.

Despite the fact that the 230 mpg rating will likely stand (once GM gets a final-production Volt into the hands of the EPA, that is), so much attention has been paid to the matter that the good in charge at Progressive’s Automotive X PRIZE decided it was time to chime in, asking “Is MPG still relevant?”

Short answer:  No.

Read the X Prize group’s long(er) answer, and learn about their proposed MPGe rating system, after the jump.

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Oh GM, I knew you were getting ahead of yourself.

Early this morning, CEO Fritz Henderson claimed thatthe Chevy Volt, a gas-electric plug-in hybrid would earn an EPA-estimated rating of 230 MPG.

But according to Green Car Advisor, the EPA has said no such thing.

Hit the jump to read the EPA’s reply.

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Bankruptcy? What bankruptcy? New GM emerged from a gov’ment cradled bankrupcty filing just a month ago, but it seems like business as usual at the former American manufacturing giant. At a press conference this mornig, New GM CEO Fritz Henderson wasted no time explaining a recent marketing campaign involving the numbers 23 and a smiling electrical outlet.

230 “composite” miles per gallon for the Chevy Volt, city rating of course. 230 miles per gallon? What kind of voodoo magic are they putting in those batteries?

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The Toyota Prius is among the most popular cars under the Cash For Clunkers program right now. But many people who want one will have to wait, as production of the popular hybrid has slowed because of a battery shortage. The supplier of Prius batteries, Panasonic EV Energy, can not keep up with Toyota’s 500,000  annual Prius capacity. While Panasonic EV says it should have its production capacity ramped up to a million units annually by mid-2010, this begs the bigger question;

Will battery packs hold back hybrid production and development?

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But still, I was shocked to stumble across this 1972 Chevy Vega claimed propulsion by hydrogen. An alternative fuel car at a show full of dinosauce suckers? Where are the mobs and pitchforks?

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NYPD’s Blue just got a little greener by adding 40 new Nissan Altima Hybrids to their fleet.

Announced by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly, the Altimas are the first set of of alternative-fuel patrol cars to help with the goals set by PlaNYC. Announced back in 2006, PlaNYC aims to reduce Manhattan’s greenhouse gas emissions by 30% come 2017.

“These new patrol cars will help fulfill the PlaNYC goal of reducing City government’s carbon footprint,” said Mayor Bloomberg.

The hybrids will be divvied amongst precincts with large coverage areas and smaller precincts prone to heavy stop-n-go traffic: essentially where their fuel efficiency provides the greatest economic and environmental impact.

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The picture you see here is the production version of the Chevy Volt, due out sometime next year. But even though the plug-in car from GM is a long way off, the General gave CNN’s Peter Valdes-Dapena a test drive in a Cruze-bodied Volt mule.

Under the economy car skin are the mechanical organs of the Volt, GM’s attempt at bringing the first mass market plug-in electric car to the market. GM invited journalists from all over the blogosphere for a quick test drive in way they say is an 80% complete production car, minus the exterior.

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With the onslaught of electric concepts and announcements coming out of the 2009 Detroit Auto Show, you’d think that the entire world is about to junk their old jalopies and rush out and buy electric cars tomorrow.

But, alas, as much as millions of Americans would love to pay 3 cents a mile on their daily commutes, our choices for electric cars are, at the moment, severely lacking.

Although the promise of the 2009 Detroit Auto Show reeks of desperation, it’s not all smoke and mirrors. Believe it or not, there are a bunch of noteworthy electric cars, both all-battery and extended range plug-ins, reaching US production sometime in the next two years.

So, if you’ve got the time to wait and you find yourself longing for the cheapest, quietest, and most earth-friendly commute you could imagine, take a gander at this list… electric bliss is closer than you probably thought.

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We all know how fast things can spread online. One blog picks up a story, then every other blog under the sun races to post their take on the story in the hopes of beating everybody else to the punch. This was certainly the case this week after GM announced they were delaying construction on the new plant in Flint, MI, devoted to building the Volt engine.

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In between a heavy rotation of aspirin, Tylenol, and Motrin, washed down with the cheapest scotch I could find, I took a few minutes to stop focusing on the ever-imploding economy and my prospects for having a job in six months, to do some problem solving for the world.

According to what anyone of any authority in the United States would have you believe, the collapse of the Big Three automakers (as if they are inextricably linked) would send our economy from the thin patch of ice that it is currently skating on, into the frigid depths to drown. Job loss estimates that I’ve seen range to two and a half million, not much less than one percent of the entire population of the country. It is for this reason, apparently, that Congress will likely throw a lifeline to each of the Big Three, by printing up trainloads (a Hummer might do actually – thanks GM!) of cash and wishing it well (thanks taxpayers!).

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So, finally we complete the trifecta. Chrysler says they need $7 billion in loans to stay afloat through 2009 and have pointed to the example of their ENVI design unit in leading the turnaround with the introduction of many new Neighborhood Electric Vehicles (NEV), City Electric Vehicles (CEV), Range-extended Electric Vehicles (ReEV), and full-function battery electric vehicles (BEV) by 2012.

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Unlike Ford, which in their tail wagging earlier today made a huge shift to focusing on electric car development, GM chose to focus their restructuring plan on the fact that they have a large number of fuel efficient vehicles (defined as 30+ mpg on the highway) already on the road. Plus, they say that by 2012 more than half of their cars will be flex-fuel capable.

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A senior economist at the Argonne National Laboratory has come to an interesting conclusion: vehicles that rely on internal combustion engines are superior to electric vehicles in terms of what consumers would buy and what would save significant fuel.

Even though Tesla is delivering their cars to consumers several years before the Volt hits the show rooms, from the perspective of Dan Santini, you and I are more likely to get our hands on Volt-style vehicles first.

Some of the main obstacles that stand between us and pure EVs were identified at the 1st International Conference on Advanced Lithium Batteries for Automotive Applications, sponsored by the Argonne National Laboratory (where Dan Santini works).

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The company has already stated its intentions not to be left behind the competition when it comes to green and fuel efficient vehicle technologies. The electric MPV is the first in a series of three possible production electric cars that will be viewed by dealers later this month, with the one that’s best received going into production first.

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No word on pricing yet, but unofficial estimates have ranged from $30,000 to $48,000. Sounds to me like GM is pushing the price estimates as high as possible to make the final price sound like a deal when they actually announce it.

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In the world of hybrid and electric cars, the upcoming commercial release of the Chevrolet Volt must surely rank as the most widely (and wildly) anticipated event. Now GM has ramped up the expectation levels another notch by releasing two teaser pictures providing us with a sneak-peak of its much vaunted plug-in hybrid model.

The release of the pictures, showing parts of the front and rear ends, will be seen in the industry as a signal that GM is still very much on track for the forecast 2010 launch of this pioneering car.

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As a basic principle of fuel economy, smaller cars get better gas mileage.  Engineering trends keep pushing the limits of the term ‘compact’ car while somehow keeping the interiors large enough to carry people. Unfortunately, the Prius won’t suffice for all drivers, and rightfully so.  There are people in the United States who require space shuttle sized SUV’s and Titantic trucks, and nothing is going to change that in the immediate future.  America runs on progress, and progress cannot happen without construction and high a high towing capacity.  The next generation of GM trucks is attempting to bridge the gap between brute force, and environmental friendliness.

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Editor’s Note: This is Anthony’s first post as a contributor to Gas 2.0. Anthony works on sugar-based biofuels at the Raines Lab of Petroleum Alternatives, University of Wisconsin-Madison.

I have a lot of admiration for Al Gore.  I was in the 7th grade when he lost his bid for the presidency, and even then I could feel that something awful was upon us.  Fast forward eight years and we find ourselves in a world where Al Gore is running a campaign to help mankind in a much more focused manner.  Instead of defecting to the private sector, Gore remains a public servant dedicated to the environment.  Recently, he called for the United States to lead the way to stop global warming, and now he is calling for the United States to be off of carbon based fuels by the year 2018.

Gore’s battle cry could not have come at a better time.

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]]> http://gas2.org/2008/07/18/2018-the-year-of-petroleum-independence/feed/ http://gas2.org/2008/01/18/final-thoughts-from-the-detroit-auto-show/ http://gas2.org/2008/01/18/final-thoughts-from-the-detroit-auto-show/#comments Fri, 18 Jan 2008 16:00:21 +0000 Clayton B. Cornell http://gas2.org/2008/01/18/final-thoughts-from-the-detroit-auto-show/ This year’s auto show was a clash of environmental responsibility with traditional automotive manufacturing.

Rick Wagoner, Chairman and CEO of General Motors, told a group of us that we have two basic choices: use oil until the oil’s gone, or start working on alternatives now and avoid a drastic and potentially unpleasant switch.

While producers are still putting out large, gas-driven vehicles with relatively low fuel economy, the major players are inching toward alternatives and pursuing new technology as rapidly as they say they can. The green theme was so pervasive that some have dubbed 2008 the ‘green year for auto manufacturing’.

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