GM takes a major step toward an electric future
By Susan Wilson
GM took a major step towards its future earlier this week when the company unveiled its new Global Battery Systems Lab in Warren, Michigan. The lab will be developing new battery technology for future electric vehicles (EVs), hybrids and fuel cell vehicles. By committing significant resources towards battery research and innovation, GM is announcing its break from the past.
GM had been seen as one of the Detroit dinosaurs that believed in large vehicles, low mileage standards and the status quo. Unlike Ford, GM’s first hybrid, the Chevy Volt, won’t appear until sometime next year.
GM’s new battery lab at 33,000 square feet, is four times the size of it’s previous battery testing facility . It employs over 1,000 engineers and utilizes several green technologies and features.
For instance, GM has installed energy saving LED lighting, a floor made from recycled tires and is able to feed 90 percent of the energy used for testing batteries back into the grid. Since the lab uses 6 megawatts or 1,400 homes worth of electricity, returning energy to the grid is an excellent feature.
The new lab will be able to simulate climates from all over the world allowing GM to research real world driving conditions during any time of the year and in any climate from Africa to Norway. Different battery technologies and configurations can be tested, developed and moved to production quickly.
GM is committing to an alternative fuel future by expanding its battery research. The Chevy Volt won’t be the only alternative energy car to come out of GM. EVWORLD recorded the opening remarks by GM President and CEO Fritz Henderson who said that GM will have “14 hybrids in production by 2012” and expects to have “two-thirds of its vehicles alternative fuel capable by 2014”. Ambitious plans for a company that has not entered the EV/hybrid world as of yet.
However running ahead of schedule is also one of the features of GM’s new lab. The expanded lab was announced in January of this year, finished five months later and is nine months ahead of schedule. Impressive for a company that during that five month period needed another money infusion from the government and entered bankruptcy.
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June 10th, 2009
Two clarifications:
1. The Volt is not a hybrid – it is an Extended-Range Electric Vehicle. For up to the first 30 miles it operates as pure electric vehicle. When the battery is depleted an small biofuel engine with create additional electricity to power the vehicle for hundreds of additional miles.
2. GM already has two hybrid propulsion systems in the market on several vehicles including the Chevrolet Malibu, Chevrolet Tahoe 2mode Hybrid, Chevrolet Silverado 2mode Hybrid, GMC Yukon 2mode Hybrid, GMC Sierra 2mode Hybrid and the Cadillac Escalade 2mode Hybrid.
The newly opened lab is testing and developing batteries for the Volt, our current and future hybrid vehicles as well as the battery for a Plug-in Hybrid electric vehicle due in 2011.