http://www.dailytech.com/Volt+Batter...ticle13181.htm

Thanks to battery tech the Chevy Volt could see an all-electric driving range of up to 80 miles

GM is readying its extended range electric vehicle called the Volt for production in 2010. The car promises to give the average driver a vehicle capable of at least 40 miles on electric power alone with a gasoline engine to recharge the battery when driving for longer distances is required.

The key component to the Volt and its ability to meet the promises GM has made is the lithium-ion battery the car uses. Applied Sciences Inc. is currently working with carbon nanofibers which could stretch the Volt's all-electric driving range to 80 miles.

Working along with GM and Applied Sciences to make the Volt a reality is another firm called Pyrograf Products. Pyrograf and Applied Sciences share a common owner, but separate investors according to Dayton Daily News.

Developing the technology to design a battery for the Volt using carbon nanofibers isn't cheap. The two Ohio-based firms received investments of $1 million from the Ohio Third Frontier program and $500,000 from GM.

Pyrograf says that its output of carbon nanofibers currently accounts for 25% of the global carbon nanofiber production. The reason the carbon nanofiber is such an important part of the Volt equation is twofold. First, the nanofibers allow for more efficiency form the battery. Second, due to performance that is more efficient the amount of overall carbon in the battery can be reduced. The total effect being less weight for the electric drive train to propel, equating to longer driving distances being attainable compared to other battery systems.

With any vehicle, reducing weight is a key component to improving performance. The original electric car from GM, the EV1, had a lead acid battery that weighed about 800 pounds. The Volt's current lithium-ion battery is about 400 pounds according to John Mackay, a spokesman for Applied Sciences.

Mackay said, "By making the carbon perform better, you can reduce the weight of that component in the battery. GM researchers say they have not seen any carbon materials that have performed as well as ours.

 

"with a gasoline engine to recharge the battery when driving for longer distances is required."

Haven't we heard countless times this is not how in fact the Volt will work, originally thats what we thought but now the car will be powered directly by the engine once the battery dies (a huge pitfall).

 

On a side note one thing that was mentioned to me recently by a GM employee that's fairly knowledgeable about this project is that a side benefit of the Volt is that its engine can actually be used to power your house (of course not EVERYTHING in your house, but still) with the simple addition of a some fairly cheap voltage/current conversion hardware between your car and your fuse box. For somebody like me that has always wanted a generator for my house since we have power outages more often than I'd care for and also because I like to be prepared for those 'dooms day' scenarios, this is a nice side benefit to owning a car with a generator built in.

There seems to be a lot of confusion on this issue all centered around the word 'recharge'.

The fact is that the engine will never directly power the Volt.

When the battery runs down to 30% of its total capacity (the point where it is effectively 'empty' for the purpose of running the car), the engine kicks on, acting as a generator, and running at a steady RPM to generate approximately enough energy to keep the battery from dropping below 30% but also being sure not to generate an excessive amount of energy so as to start charging the battery back up above 30%. It's basically just a 'sustaining charge'. They do this because if they allowed the engine to charge the battery back to 100% then it would defeat the plug-in purpose of the vehicle since you'd get home and your battery would already be partially recharged by the in-car generator at a much more expensive rate per unit of energy than you'd be paying for charging from your wall outlet.

 

My neighbor has about 4 car batteries connect in his garage for power outtages. Its really clever, he ran some extra electric wires through his and these outlets have energy efficient nightlights in them that come on when the power fails. The system can run the refrigerator, a heater, TV and some lights. And when its out of juice you just hook it up to the car. Its clever.

 

Yeah I should have mentioned you can power your house with your current vehicle but you just can't power very much. Only a small percentage of the energy generated by your engine idling is converted to power by your alternator.

The volt on the other hand will be many many times more efficient with its power generation, not to mention of course its battery is high capacity enough that it may be able to power your home for a shorter outage without even cutting the engine on at all.

 

80 mile range is 100% better, but they're goal should have been 100 miles as the VERY MINIMUM.

 

If expanding the range from 80 to 100 miles causes the car to cost 6 grand more to produce and weigh 120 pounds more. How many sales do you think they'd lose because of the increased price and worsened driving dynamics (plus worsened city fuel economy when off the battery?). Now how many sales would they gain? I'm sure not any more likely to buy the Volt because it goes 100 miles without kicking on the generator than I was at 80 miles. My commute, like 98% of America, is well under 80 miles per day. Heck, my commute is actually 24 miles round trip every day.

The difference between 80 and 100 miles would almost never actually mean anything to me except on the occasional road trip... and then what did I save? Half a gallon of gas? Half a gallon times 2-3 road trips a year. Woohoo. That's sure going to take a very long time at 1 to 1.5 gallons per year in extra savings for me to recoup the extra 6 grand in purchase price... not to mention it sure would be nice to shave off those extra 120 pounds of weight that are hurting the driving dynamics of the car.

 

I'm excited to see how much they can do and test before this car is released it's no EV1 though

 

The bump in range is good news. For my daily commute I could have gotten away with the 40 miles, but that would be cutting it close. Any significant side trip and that would eat away most of that 40 miles. 80 miles on the other hand should make a perfect daily commuter for me. Gotta see what other hybrid and electric vehicles come out in 2010 though as there should be a good deal of choices in a few years.

 

I'm wondering if the recharge issue (not recharging battery beyond effective "empty") is related to the heat generated when recharging by this method vs. when plugged in. Probably not but makes me go hmmm.....

Regarding the technology that extends the range: I wonder what it does for recharge time. More homes will want 220V plugs.

 

sweet

and what doesnt carbon nanofibre or carbon nanotubes improve?
lol

 

I don't understand how the 'recharge issue' is an issue. It's a the absolute most logical design you could ask for.

Tell me if your car's battery reached an effective empty point... would you want the engine running any longer than it had to in order to keep the car moving forward? Would you want any additional gasoline spent on recharging your car's battery above and beyond empty? Isn't the point of this car to get us away from paying 4 bucks a gallon for gasoline and start paying a couple bucks more through our home electric bill instead? So any charging the generator does above and beyond the 'empty' point would just defeat the purpose of the car. You'd get home with your half charged battery and only get to charge it using your wall outlet the other half of the way.

 

Do you realize HOW INEFFICIENT that would be? Why not just get a diesel generator? In a "doomsday" scenario, you've got a lot better chance of making homemade diesel substitutes compared to petrol anyway.

It sounds like an excuse to me An excuse to own a pretty cool car.

Too bad GM will go under once the lawsuits ensue from batteries catching fire. They haven't R&D'd Li_ion enough yet, they are rushing its release. There's a reason Toyota delayed it.

 

It wouldn't be any more inefficient than any other gasoline generator. We're talking about an in-car generator, not a standard engine. The generator is made to direct every bit of its constant-rpm power toward generating electricity.

True... then again have you priced out diesel generators?

If GM has been pouring its concentrated effort into this project then maybe they have put enough into R&D despite Toyota waiting another year or two. Then again maybe not... maybe it's still a risk. Only time will tell.

 

The Volt is still two years away. The only thing they're rushing is publication of its supposed existence.