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G.M. Opens Its Own Battery Research Laboratory
Al writes "Bankrupt automaker G.M. has taken a significant step towards reinventing itself by opening a battery laboratory in Michigan on a site that once churned out internal combustion engines. The new facility lets G.M. engineers simulate all kinds of conditions to determine how long batteries will last once they're inside its vehicles. Battery packs are charged and discharged while being subjected to high and low temperatures as well as extremes of humidity. Engineers can also simulate different altitudes by placing the packs in barometric chambers. The facility has also been designed so that engineers located in New York and Germany and at the University of Michigan can perform experiments remotely. Despite its financial troubles, G.M. has committed to producing the Volt and is already working on second- and third-generation battery technology at the new lab."
...I'd own part of a battery research laboratory!
I'd like to make a safe bet that this research lab is going to be used exclusively to butter up Congress with tours for more bailout money.
GM was so far ahead of everyone else with the EV1. Sure it was a money loser, but had they kept that line of cars around in limited production they could have worked out all sorts of problems with mass producing electric cars and they would have owned all the patents and know how in the area for 20 years. Instead, they killed the program, dumped all the IP they gained from it and went back to building SUV's and pickup trucks.
Insane.
China makes lithium batteries that can release large amounts of energy all at once...the fireballs are spectacular.
This lab has been there for some time.
I saw it on PBS comparing the old EV1 battery to the new Volt pack.
Apparently it was recorded in 2005.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1046766/
I'm sorry, but you misspelled "the money they're fleecing from the taxpayers."
Batteries are a dirty, nasty hard to recycle oldschool technology that dies after a few 100 charges, or maybe a few thousand if you're lucky. More research into ultracaps is needed - using better nano-tech to increase the surface area, testing of ultracapacitor-based systems and that sort of thing.
In all honesty, if we end up spending $100 billion and end up with some amazing battery technology as a result, I will consider it worth it. Better than a lot of the other trillions we've been throwing around.
Qxe4
I'm not seeing how this story or any other story about GM and their "Volt" is noteworthy. The Volt is not a marvel of engineering. It's not innovative. It's the same crappy "hybrid" concept that every other auto maker has tried to push. The Volt only goes 40 miles on a charge before rolling over to the gas engine. And at the nearly $40,000 price point, why bother buying it? If you spent a bit more money, you can buy a Tesla Model S, priced at about $50,000 (assuming you can get the rebate). The Model S doesn't even have a gasoline engine, goes over 7 times farther than the Volt on a single charge, can go from 0 to 60 in under 6 seconds, and looks a hell of a lot better than the Volt IMO.
If GM uses this new laboratory to produce cars with no gasoline engine (all electric), I'm on board. But if they use it to push this ridiculous Volt and other similar hybrids onto the market, it'll be just another waste of our taxpayer dollars.
Read up on the Toyota RAV4EV electric vehicle first sold in the US in 1997. It was based on the RAV4 body and could travel 120 miles per charge.
The RAV4EV was sold direct to consumers in 2002 in California and cost $33,000 after rebates.
The car was discontinued when Chevron gained rights to NiMH battery patents and forced Toyota to stop producing them for their cars.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rav4ev
Government Motors is investing in itself
I wonder if they are eligible for any tax credits.
Very true... Our last $800 billion only bought us a bunch of dead Arabs.
Yes, IF. On the other hand, maybe GM will produce mediocre batteries, but will use its government subsidy to undercut and crush a great battery-producing startup. Or maybe batteries are a dead end, and fuel cells are the answer, but GM/Congress are not astute enough to figure it out.
Why are we betting on a proven loser? Why not just create an X-Prize for energy storage and let the best company win?
Fixed that for you...
"Sure is nice that you spent your money on SUVs for the last eight years, that they didn't have any short term financial incentive to do research like this."
Maybe if they thought a little longer term and remembered "the energy crisis" from 1973 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1973_oil_crisis as they were designing their vehicles, people would want to buy them now.
Or maybe if GM hadn't discontinued the EV1 in 199 and then taken all the EV1's and crushed them in 2003 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Motors_EV1, they'd have something to sell that people want to buy.
Or maybe if instead of discontinuing them in 2001, they still sold Suzuki G10 XFi engine based Chevy Sprints / Geo Metros which got 51MPG highway, 43 MPg city, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suzuki_Cultus, they'd have non-hybrid cars that exceeded the new CAFE standards already.
GM had the products and manufacturing capability for success in the current economy, but they squandered it all on short term thinking, like investments in GMAC (which got about 7% of last Novembers TARP bailout money after declaring itself a bank, or $5 billion http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GMAC).
-- Terry
Now actually take it in a positive direction for once.
Many companies have these testing facilities for green sources of energy. How about you do something novel for once.
Make the battery discharging a lot more real world and practicle. Have them discharge to the power grid.
Have it help the plant at least by powering some lights or machines when you discharge the energy instead of creating waste heat in simple electrically resistive or mechanical resistance dummy loads.
Rant/ /Rant
Show us that you can actually think on your own in front of the others and you'll get some respect. Or keep following the pack in the back and get left behind for dead. It's the little decisions that got you here, the ones that unnervingly followed the most greedy and predictable paths that lead to the american people finally being forced to give your company money. Not for a product that was better or a service that they chose over others. You got the money because we hate seeing our symbols fail. The ones that are supposed to prove that America can produce the best because of our market and our freedoms. So instead of seeing it fail, we nail the coffin closed ourselves by proving that if a business can't earn the market share, the government will buy 60% and keep it alive rather than admit that it has failed.
) Human Kind Vs Human Creation
) It'd be interesting to see how many humans would survive to serve us.
And they sold it to Exxon Mobil, who buried it and laughed all the way back to their oilfields.
"There are laws that enslave men, and laws that set them free. " - Sean Connery as King Arthur
When you buy your EV car, you don't OWN the battery, you lease it for a small periodic fee. GM would have to make it so these batteries can easily be removed and new ones replaced. Not unlike a simple docking system. You pull into a participating "gas" station, now eventually could be called a "Battery Replacement" station. A motorist pulls into station, pays a small and reasonable "battery replacement" fee, a new one is popped in, and away they go. The dead battery is then placed on a charger, powered by wind, Sun, or even the Grid.
Station owners would have to arrange for even distribution of batteries throughout the network of Charging stations. Look at http://betterplace.com for details on an outfit already doing this, who already has a head start, and lots of money to work with.
Car makers and Battery pack makers have to come up with a STANDARD docking system so ALL car makers can use the same configuration.
GM now leases these batteries to the car owner, and also to the charging stations. GM would also have to setup a battery reclamation service to take back used batteries, renovate them (if possible) or dispose of them in a clean environmental way.
Not only that, but enterprising individuals can also build coin operated charging stations, place them in rest areas, street parking, company parking lots, or anyplace where people need to park their cars. They park their car, go to a credit card or coin machine, pick the space (or charge station number), pay and plug in.
We need to start building up our infrastructure, and phat cat investors should start investing in small enterprising individuals to start building them. Engineering wise, they are simple to build. Power enters in through a metal conduit, a coin or credit operated switch is then used to power an outlet. Parker comes in, plops in about $3 for 3 hours of charging time, does their shopping, and comes back to a fully charged "Volt" or whatever they plan to drive.
Someone needs to tell GM about this idea, and get them to start thinking of helping build our renewable energy economy.
John