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Pages with tag General Motors

  • Chevrolet Bolt EV full review -- SlashGear: The Chevy Bolt EV is GM's latest attempt to enter the electric vehicle market after they smashed the EV1. This review spends a long time talking with the Chief Designer talking about the choices going into many design details. The design team was in South Korea, perhaps to ease the collaboration with LG as that company is providing most of the components. It has many advanced features some of which really add to usability. An example is the front seats, which are very comfortable, yet they're very thin giving them a few inches extra room in the rear. I can attest having sat in the rear seat, that it has an amazing amount of room.
  • Chevrolet delivers first Bolt EVs to customers: The long-awaited Chevy Bolt EV is starting to be delivered, with the first three being delivered through a Chevrolet dealership in Fremont. That dealership has a large solar panel system out front with integrated electric car charging, FWIW. Coincidentally it's located within spitting distance of the Tesla Motors factory also in Fremont.
  • GM advances self-driving vehicle development with acquisition of LIDAR developer
  • GM digital vehicle platform debuts, enables adoption of future technologies
  • GM in discussions with Cincinnati-based Workhorse Group to sell its Lordstown, Ohio, complex
  • GM outlines All Electric path to Zero Emissions:

    The last few months several carmakers have announced plans to go fully electric. General Motors, the company that killed the EV1, has announced their own plan. You'll notice that details are lacking below just what is meant, and that the announcement curiously includes discussion of a fuel cell prototype vehicle platform. Fuel cell vehicles are driven by electric motors, but it's hard to call them "electric" since they do not plug in to a power socket to recharge. Remember, "It's not electric if you can't plug it in".

    Call me hopeful but skeptical. The image GM included with the announcement is obviously meant to convey several vehicles in the R&D stage waiting to be unveiled.

  • GM outlines possibilities for flexible, autonomous fuell cell platform:

    Earlier this week GM announced a plan to transition to all-electric vehicles. Curiously the only vehicle mentioned in the announcement was a fuel cell autonomous vehicle platform, which is a non-electric hydrogen powered vehicle type. Here is the announcement concerning that fuel cell vehicle platform, and the fact that it's targeted at the military and heavy duty trucking sectors.

    The military faces a deadly problem with "regular" military vehicles, because of the necessity to deliver fossil fuels to the field. The delivery process exposes more soldiers to harm because delivering fuel to remote outposts requires driving convoys through possibly hostile territories. The military has been interested for several years in other energy systems if only to reduce the risk to soldiers. You might think that instead of invading countries willy nilly for unclear reasons and terrorising the population so badly they want to fight back, that the best choice would be to pull out and say we're sorry and try to make amends. But the political leadership we have instead wants to keep the war going and obviously I've flown off into tangent land.

    That tangent was meant to explain why the press release stresses "minimize logistical burdens and reduce human exposure to harm." Clearly this Association of the United States Army meeting will include some attention on the issue of mitigating risks from delivering fuel to dangerous territory.

    I don't understand why General Motors thinks this is a solution to the named problem. Fuel cell vehicles require pure hydrogen. Since it's difficult to deliver fuel to a remote outpost in hostile territory, how does switching to hydrogen fuel make any difference? The hydrogen still has to be delivered to the field.

  • GM path to an All-Electric, Zero Emissions future
  • GM produces first round of self-driving Chevrolet Bolt EV test vehicles:

    For the first time, autonomous self-driving cars have been built using mass-production methodology. As we can tell via the pictures released with this press release, they built some kind of assembly line for this purpose. The assembly line clearly isn't "high-end" (no robots), but it's an assembly line, letting them claim to have used mass-production methods. GM is deploying the 130 vehicles to test fleets in San Francisco, Scottsdale and Detroit.

    Another thing to see in these pictures is that these cars have many sensors, including a whole sensor package mounted on the roof, and some sensors at the side near the front. The press release talks about LIDAR, cameras and other sensors, as well as computing equipment.

  • GM to invest $300 million, add 400 jobs at Michigan plant for new Chevrolet electric vehicle
  • GM to start autonomous vehicle manufacturing and testing in Michigan: In preparation for the Robocar future, GM has begun testing fully autonomous Chevy Bolt's in Warren Michigan. In a few years GM and Lyft are to partner in delivering a fleet of on-demand autonomous vehicles across the U.S. This means the days of having a side job with Lyft (and Uber) are numbered.
  • GM's assembly line for producing Self-Driving Chevrolet Bolt EV Test cars:

    Yesterday GM released news that a hundred or so Self-Driving Chevy Bolt EV's were being manufactured on an assembly line, and being shipped to test fleets around the USA. They described this as a milestone, as the first self-driving car to be built with mass-production techniques. We've found a video that goes over the assembly line.

    This is clearly not a robotized modern assembly line. Instead of an building the cars from scratch, they are attaching parts to a pre-built chassis. It looks like Engineering team members are doing some of the assembly.

    The other thing to note is the size of the computing cluster, and that it takes up a significant amount of cargo space. As advanced as their self-driving technology surely is, they still haven't shrunk the equipment down to where it fits into the woodwork.

  • General Motors and LG Chem team up to advance toward an all-electric future, add jobs in Ohio: General Motors and LG have worked on electric vehicle technology such as most of the innards of the Chevy Bolt EV. This announcement is about what will be GM's Gigafactory - but of course they're not going to use that name. Meaning, GM and LG Chem (just like Tesla and Panasonic) will build a factory in which to manufacture a large quantity of battery packs. Having a large factory for this purpose will bring down battery costs. LG Chem had previously received US federal funding for a battery factory in the USA, to supply cells to GM for the Chevy Volt. The new factory will be in the Lordstown area, which has been a point of contention between GM and the Trump Administration. The factory will be new construction rather than reusing any existing facility GM has in that area. GM sold its earlier manufacturing complex to "Lordstown Motors" for the purpose of building battery-electric trucks.
  • General Motors makes EV Charging On The Go easier than ever: GM has beefed up its smart phone app for electric vehicles to include a comprehensive charging station map and related features. It helps folks to find charging stations on the EVgo and ChargePoint networks, and to help start charging sessions.
  • General Motors to collaborate with eVgo, ChargePoint and Greenlots to enhance the charging experience for customers
  • Honda Electrified! Clarity Plug-in Hybrid and Clarity Electric unveiled at 2017 New York International Auto Show
  • Is General Motors' Policy on DC Quick Charging Slowing Chevrolet Bolt EV Adoption Rates? (Transport Evolved): Chevy Bolt EV sales are not taking off like a rocket making people think the car is a failure. On Transport Evolved, Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield suggests the cause is GM's lackluster support for building charging infrastructure. Clearly Tesla's big sales advantage is that the Supercharger network is so well developed. CCS fast charging infrastructure is at least 3 years behind other DC fast charging methods. Since it is not as widely available, the CCS fast charging standard is less attractive than either CHAdeMO or Supercharger which are much more available. GM doesn't help by steadfastly refusing to participate in building fast charging infrastructure.
  • Maven joins city of Austin TX in deploying all-electric shared-use fleet of Chevy Bolts
  • Maven launches City Car Sharing in Atlanta: General Motors car sharing service, Maven City Car Sharing, is expanding. Like most automakers, GM is looking forward to a future where autonomous cars can be deployed as an automated car sharing service. We should see this sort of service as a form of "dabbling" as they (GM) prepares for that future.
  • Tesla Prep For Model 3, Lucid Air PR, Self-Driving Bolt EV -- Transport Evolved Feb 10, 2017: To prepare for start of Model 3 production, Tesla Motors will do a short factory shutdown in order to install the necessary equipment (tooling, etc). Audi has been trash-talking Tesla Motors, claiming Audi will supply the first properly Premium Electric Car. Honda put out a strange fuel cell advertising campaign. Hyundai Ioniq beginning deliveries in USA, but with only 120 miles range probably cannot compete against Chevy Bolt. Because of Dieselgate, Volkswagen is launching its Electrify America plan with a website and a request for ideas. Nissan is in trouble for emissions of its Diesel powered vehicle. Lucid Air giving test drives to select people. The Tesla Model X can be easily accessed with just a screwdriver. Both Tesla and SpaceX joined a large group of Hi-Tech companies complaining about the Trump Administration Muslim travel ban. GM released a new video on progress towards a self-driving car. Electric car sales in the UK totaled 4.2% in January 2017.
  • Tesla Prep For Model 3, Lucid Air PR, Self-Driving Bolt EV -- Transport Evolved Feb 18, 2017: GM expands Maven car sharing to Los Angeles. Latest Tesla update provides real-time Supercharger status, preparing for an influx of more EV drivers. Adds data about congestion at upcoming supercharger stations so you can make additional plans. Toyota Mirai Fuel Cell Sedan recalled for software glitch that's expected to be rare but wasn't found in testing. EV Sales in Norway, where electric car sales are extremely popular, top 37 percent of new car sales last month (January 2017). That's just 13% from bypassing the 50% sales level. Hyundai announces $29,500 entry-level price (MSRP) for 2017 IONIQ EV, and combined with tax incentives it is extremely affordable. Jason Hughes, a famous Tesla Hacker, hacks his Model S to make it 30% more powerful. Electric bus maker, Proterra CEO predicts one-third of all new busses will be electric in just four year’s time (by 2021), and by 2030 all such busses will be electric. Daimler announces their Smart brand will become an all-electric brand in the U.S., completely eschewing gasoline. Was Waymo’s Brain Drain caused by overpaying its staff? It seems Waymo's parent company (Google/Alphabet) paid those employees enough to make them independently wealthy, allowing them to leave to start their own self-driving-vehicle startups. Kia exec says NIRO EV will hit market in 2018. Mercedes-Benz starts small series production for Daimler Urban eTruck. A patient Bolt EV owner has driven their car 300 miles on a charge, or 70 miles more than the EPA rating.