Source: GM VOLT.com Chevy Volt is the Centerpiece
Once in a while an epic Volt story is published in the media. Such is the 6000 word piece penned by Bernard Avishai for Inc. magazine.
The Volt is described in truly revolutionary terms not just for its ability to drive without oil or how it would be a halo car for GM but more importantly how it forms the centerpiece of an explosively growing suite of industries.
It is explained how people will seek electriccars primarily for cost savings once gas goes over $3 per gallon.
“At that level,” GM VP Jon Lauckner tells the author, “the cost of running a Volt in full electric mode will be about one-sixth that of a gas-driven car of the same size, 2 or 3 cents a mile rather than 12 to 15 cents a mile. We figured that, for most people, this means a savings of about $1,500 a year.” The value of range anxiety reduction is also described as giving the Volt an advantage over competitors such as the Nissan LEAF.
A very critical and perhaps more important success factor with tremendous national impact though will be the interaction with the Volt and the grid
An executive from utility company Duke Power is quoted as saying, “if every American home had a Volt, he says, total power usage in the country would increase only about 10 percent.” His company and many others are developing the tools to handle this and more importantly to achieve ideal load distribution so that charging isn’t done simultaneously by many cars at peak times.
The Volt will be smart enough to program time of charging in, but it is perhaps more important that utility companies be able to read the demand of all the country’s electric cars concurrently and be able to manage the charging elegantly. The elements to obtain this orchestration of supply and demand to the benefit of all parties is beginning to emerge.
This is the rapid transformational growth stemming from the electrification of the automobilethat is upon us, akin to the Internet of the early 90s. Many startups are forming to deal with this new network of the smart electric car and smart gird interface. As an early mover, GM has the chance for tremendous future success.
Our friend Volt executive Tony Posawatz was quoted as saying “our urgent challenge is to become the leading integrator of the sustainable transportation-energy ecosystem — to control the intellectual property governing the integration of the battery to the car and the car to the grid.” The author translates what Tony is really saying is:
If GM plays its cards right, it could well incubate, and own, the new industry’s crucial operating and telecommunications standards, the anchors for thousands of smaller technology companies supporting the electric car’s components, information, and entertainment and charging needs.
Beyond the explosive growth of the lithium battery industry fueled by government loans and grants and A123’s IPO, GM has its own internal plans for future battery advances.
Former executive Bob Kruse explains that GM’s 3rd generation Volt battery will use non-liquid solid-state cells that have twice the energy density and half the cost. GM’s close collaborator Ann Marie Sastry at the U. of Michigan who has founded the battery start-up Sastry3 is apparently working on developing such cells.
“Liquid electrolytes present integration limits — also limits on energy density. We think that disruptive manufacturing techniques can improve performance dramatically, as in the chip industry.” Sastry said. “We aim to create a cheap, scalable process.”
Another electric car-induced industry will be for battery packs that have passed their vehicular lifetime but still have 75% storage capacity.
“It is easy to imagine warehouses full of used batteries sucking up wind energy and saving it for times the wind does not blow, or homeowners using the pack as backup,” said Pozawatz.
Home and public charging station companies will also proliferate. Highlighted is California start-up Coulomb Technologies who is pioneering the networked EV charging industry. The company’s CEO is former Cisco executive Richard Lowenthal who explains how networking software is the key to his company’s product.
“The key to our infrastructure and our venture funding is our network software applications,” said Lowenthal. “Our chargers are smart enough to consolidate payment from subscribers to all the various power companies, or tell drivers over their phones where they can find incentive pricing, and so forth.”
Software development is also a crucial new industry representing the brain of the Volt; choosing how to balance generator and battery ouptut against rapidly changing load demands from both the road and driver.
Furthermore, ensuring the car is able to communicate outward to the grid, service providers and the Internet is very important in the Volt. Here GM holds a fearsome advantage over its competitors by owing OnStar which as we know will be deeply knitted into the Volts operating system.
“We are focusing on the car and building in the capacity to roll up charging data, which can be placed at the door of the power company,” said Posawatz.
The killer app though could be supplied by a company called GridPoint that will supply the link between the electric car and the utility grid, allowing the utility companies to comprehend and act on the information provided by many thousands of electric cars like the Volt
“We see companies like GridPoint managing what utilities do with data behind the door, providing back to our drivers the charging, billing, and other services that will maximize the cost effectiveness and environment benefit of owning an electric vehicle,” said Posawatz
All of these new industries that the Volt represent a starting point for are also being subsidized by government in the way of the billions of dollars of loans and stimulus money already supplied by the Obama administration, guaranteeing their success.
As this story compellingly tells, we have arrived at a truly transformational point in history for the country, the economy, society, and the environment, and sitting right at the heart of it all is none other than the Chevy Volt.
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