GM Might Build a Battery Electric Car, but It Won't be the "EV2"
General Motors is really betting heavily on the electrification of the automobile, and it made that plain Tuesday when the company said it would add 1,000 engineers and researchers to its EV team. The thousand-dollar question: Will this plugged-in company complement the plug-in hybrid Volt with a battery electric, effectively "EV2"?
EV1, as you recall, was the battery electric approved by Roger Smith that failed in the marketplace and inspired Who Killed the Electric Car? GM isn't saying yes or no about the introduction of a battery electric before 2015. Spokesman Rob Peterson told me:
We're not ruling it out, but I think it's fair to say that we wouldn't call it "EV2." Battery technology is still new and just coming into its own. The vehicles will develop greater capabilities, the batteries will achieve higher energy densities and there will also be a lot of infrastructure installed -- charging stations. So that means consumers will be able to better fit EV charging into their lifestyles.If I read that correctly, Peterson is saying that GM's in wait-and-see mode on battery cars. It has a low-profile test program of electric Chevy Cruzes tucked away in South Korea, and anything under way in the U.S. is being kept very quiet.
Peterson says GM is hiring people to work in three areas: electric motors, batteries, and power controls/electronics. As he points out, this technology will work equally well in "next generation" hybrids, battery EVs and fuel-cell cars. "We're not starting from the vehicle platform and working down, we're working from the technologies down," he said.
GM has invested a total of $700 million to support production of the Volt (which launches this month), including $336 million at the old-school Detroit-Hamtramck plant that makes the car, and another $43 million in its battery pack plant in Brownstown Township, Michigan. I was there when the company opened its battery lab at the Tech Center in Warren. The Obama Administration was a major partner in those investments, through the Department of Energy.
GM CEO Dan Akerson said Tuesday that the company is looking at ways to expand production of the Volt should demand warrant it. GM plans to build 10,000 in 2011, and 45,000 in 2012. GM North America President Mark Reuss told Automotive News that larger volumes are constrained by battery cell availability.
GM assembles battery packs, but isn't making cells yet. That's scheduled for 2012, when LG Chem (now providing Volt cells from Korea) will have its Michigan plant fully operational.
The 1,000 new engineers will obviously add to the company's expertise in that area, and should position GM for introducing EV2, by that or any other name.
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Photo: General Motors