Developing the Future of Transporation: Chevy Volt

Earlier this week, PSFK was invited to view the production version of the 2010 Chevy Volt at a debut event in NYC. The car was officially unveiled last month in Detroit. The Volt is classified as an E-REV or extended range electric vehicle. Power comes primarily from batteries on board the car which can be recharged by plugging the vehicle in to an outlet. The vehicle does have small a flexible fuel engine which drives a generator to recharge the batteries when the charge gets low. The gas engine will only turn on in instances when more electricity is needed. It does not directly power the car.

Frank Weber, Vehicle Line Executive at GM spoke about the transition period the automotive industry in currently in. He noted that the challenge for the industry was to shift from the traditional development of mechanical propulsion to developing electronic propulsion technology. This change fundamentally alters how cars are designed at every level. He speculated that battery production will have to become a core business of car companies in the future. The production roll out of the Volt is in fact tied to just how many batteries can be produced at the manufacturing facility. So it’s clear that to offer more cars in the future, staying ahead on advanced technology and new manufacturing techniques is critical.

Bob Boniface, Design Director at GM said that the 2010 Volt aims to be a blend of the modern and the familiar. The goal was to introduce this new technology in a way that people could easily transition to. The team felt the Volt needed to succeed at being safe, practical, affordable, and fun to drive. On a full charge, the Volt will be able to travel 40 miles, which GM researched and found would fit a large percentage of daily commuters. Meaning the gas engine on the vehicle would rarely be used. In order to get this level of performance, extensive work was done in the wind tunnel to create an efficient design but also retain the base character of the concept car. Even very small details like adding a 5mm ‘kick’ to the rear spoiler created a significant aerodynamic efficiency advantage.

I asked Bob if working on the Volt had fundamentally changed his way of thinking about the design of vehicles. He said that historically, engineering and design worked in a sort of limited partnership. Often designers were tasked with developing the styling of a vehicle based on a set package (chassis and powertrain) that came from engineering. With the Volt there needed to be much more collaboration with engineering because of the efficiency goals in size, weight, and aerodynamics that needed to be achieved. This required more dialog between design and engineering to develop innovative solutions. Bob noted that the circle of collaboration was already widening to include technology partners and material scientists who all have influence on what future vehicle can achieve in terms of design and performance. Is the Volt the future car design 1.0? Bob said that was a fair assessment but mentioned 2.0 is not far away.