GM's Exec. Chief Engineer For Electric Vehicles Pam Fletcher Answers Your Question

Pam Fletcher was propulsion system chief engineer on the first Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrid and is now executive chief engineer for electrified vehicles at GM, overseeing electrified vehicles company-wide. A while ago you had a chance to ask about her work and the future of electric cars. Below you'll find her answers to your questions. Long range outlook: batteries or fuel cells?
by berchca

Right now, based on current technology, American companies are developing battery-powered electric cars, while Japanese are introducing those based on fuel cells. Over the long range, say in ten or twenty years, do you see one technology overtaking the other?

Fletcher: There isn’t going to be a single technology solution that will be the silver bullet when it comes alternative propulsion. GM has teams working on various solutions from extended-range electric vehicles like the current and next-generation Chevrolet Volt, as well as hybrids such as the recently announced Chevrolet Malibu Hybrid. We’re also developing pure electrics like the Chevrolet Spark EV and the 200 mile Chevrolet Bolt EV Concept that we plan to bring a to market in the coming years. We also continue to work on hydrogen fuel cells and have a partnership with Honda to help commercialize that technology in the near future.

We are committed to delivering the appropriate relevant and beneficial technologies to our customers around the world and that will depend on a number of factors: affordability and infrastructure to name a few.



Charging at every Gas Station
by jzarling

Has GM looked into developing a partnership with any of the major gas station chains (Exxon/Mobil/BP) to provide recharging services? If a quick charger was as ubiquitous as a gas pump I think it would go along way to defeating range anxiety when traveling long distances.

Fletcher: We’re working with a number of different partners, including major utilities, to help develop an infrastructure to increase the adoption of electric vehicles. But it’s important to note that studies show there are two places where vehicles spend the most time: at home and the workplace. That’s why we’ve joined forces with the Department of Energy on their workplace charging challenge to encourage businesses to install charging that can be used by employees during the workday. We’re also working with various groups on developing simplified permitting for the installation of level 2 charging at home and encouraging the adoption of policies that will encourage developers to install appropriate infrastructure in new construction to support EV charging. Public charging is important, especially when it comes to DC Fast Charging, and we’re partnering with other automakers and utilities to expanding the rollout of DC Fast Charging across the U.S..



GM skateboard
by sichbo

Whatever happened to that rockin' skateboard concept which had a swappable body. The Volt has been a bit of a disappointment in terms of design aesthetics and forward thinking, compared to GM's early electric/hydrogen concept. Do you think the skateboard idea will ever see the light of day, perhaps as a Ni-Cd battery car?

Fletcher: The Hy-Wire concept was an exciting vehicle and we continue to work of fuel cell technology. Will a vehicle and structure like the Hy-Wire come to market? That’s something I can’t speculate on.

In terms of the Volt, I think our more than 70,000 owners would disagree with you. In fact, they are among the most satisfied vehicle owners of any on the planet. The 2016 Chevrolet Volt, which will go on sale this fall, will raise the bar again when it comes to design and EV functionality – with 50 miles of EV range.



What's the deal with the Spark EV?
by danbert8

Pardon the Seinfeld title... The Spark seems like a good candidate for an electric car. Small, lightweight, city car. Indeed there is an electric version! But only for sale in CA and OR... What's up with that? I am in the market for a tiny city car and I am already considering a Spark. I would totally get the EV version if it was for sale in GA. There are electric cars coming out the wazoo in the area I am in, but no Spark EV for me? Seems like a missed opportunity especially considering the marketing potential of the Sparky Spark.

Fletcher: Thanks for your enthusiasm about the Spark EV. We recently announced that we will begin selling the Spark EV in Maryland starting this summer. We continue to study other potential markets for the Spark EV and are excited about the potential for the next all-electric vehicle that will be based off the Bolt EV Concept, which we said was targeted for sale in all 50 states.



Putting the Voltec system into other vehicles...
by Mysticalfruit

I'm an extremely happy Volt owner! It is by far the best car I've ever owned.

Question #1. What is Chevy's plans to extend the Voltec system into other models such as the Trax and/or the Equinox? I ask because my wife's current vehicle is an AWD SUV and I'd like to replace it with a like vehicle that's a EREV but is still AWD and has cargo room. I know the 2016 Volt has a square battery pack and thus a 5th seat, I can only assume that's to make it fit better in other chassis?

Fletcher: Thanks for your support. I love hearing from Volt owners. While I can’t comment on potential future vehicles and technologies, I can tell you we are studying ways we can use various systems from the Volt on our vehicles across our portfolio. The Malibu Hybrid, for example, uses a number of components from the Volt. It has a drive unit that’s very similar to the one used in the next-generation Volt, as well as the same regenerative braking system.

Again, I can’t say much on the possibility of a EREV SUV other than we know it’s something Volt fans would love to have in their garage.

Question #2. Why does Chevy not promote the Volt?!? You never see a Chevy commercial that has the Volt in it. They had the "low battery" commercial a couple of years ago and then nothing. When I go places I have people constantly coming up and asking "A volt? What kind of car is this? Chevy? Wow, this thing's awesome! I had no idea..." My wife's joked I should become some sort of Chevy Volt Ambassador!

Fletcher: The next-generation Volt provides us with something we didn’t have when we launched the original: real-world data and feedback from owners like you. We have learned a lot about how we need to refine our communication about the benefits of the Volt and you will see that reflected in our approach to marketing when we launch the 2016 Volt this fall. In fact, we announced that the next-generation Volt will appear in the new Disney film Tomorrowland, which debuts on May 22.



Battery tech on 2500 and 3500 pickups?
by mlts

GM has tried a decent hybrid system on their 1500 Silverados. Where a hybrid system would be very usable, would be on the heavier duty pickups like the 3/4 and one ton models: First, electric motors provide their best torque at near 0 RPM, which is quite useful. Second, on a rural jobsite, if a PSW inverter is available, this would allow the truck to completely replace a generator in the field. Just plug the welder, saw, or other tools into that and use the onboard battery for that, perhaps running the IC engine to keep everything topped off. Third, for farms, it might be economical to have the trucks charge and run on batteries, as it saves on fuel. My question: Will we see this technology being used on the heavier duty series of pickups?

Fletcher: As you mentioned, we offered hybrid technology on our full-size trucks and SUVs in the 2008 and 2009 model years and we continue to study the development of sensible technologies that will help to improve the fuel economy of our trucks.



Tesla's open patents
by istartedi

Has Tesla's decision to open its patents had any impact on your work?

Fletcher: No, but I appreciate the fact that other companies are helping to foster adoption of electric vehicle technology across the industry - the more competition the better. Did you know that GM has the most green patents filed of any carmaker?

Our focus is to cooperate with other manufacturers when it comes to commonality of things that matter most to the customer: charging, for instance. We have worked with the Society of Automotive Engineers and other carmakers to develop a common charging connector for 120V, 240V and DC Fast Charging. We can’t advance adoption if consumers have to find a different charger whether they drive one EV or another. Likewise, we work with our suppliers and university partners to develop battery, motor and control technologies that can be the foundation for a variety of EVs.



Ultracapacitors for Storage?
by paratek

Ms. Fletcher, Does GM have any plans to leverage ultracapacitors for primary energy storage in place of batteries? Thank you!

Fletcher: Our research and development teams are working on various solutions when it comes to energy storage but I can’t provide specifics as to what exactly we’re focused on for the future.



Charger Size
by Ted Cabeen

To date, all GM Electric cars have only supported 3.3kW Level 2 charging. Do you think 3.3kW charging plus CCS quick charging is sufficient for longer-range vehicles that might be used for road trips, like the forthcoming Bolt?

Fletcher: We think that 3.3 kW is ideal for today’s electrified vehicles, like the Volt and Spark EV. We have made a slight upgrade to the charging system on the 2016 Chevrolet Volt to 3.6 kW. What our plans are for the next-generation all-electric vehicle based off the Bolt EV Concept is something we’ll discuss in the future. But our focus is to provide an opportunity for a full recharge overnight.



Economics of the Chevy Bolt
by organgtool

How is the upcoming Chevy Bolt going to get 200 miles per charge with a base price of $30,000? I ask because one of the biggest costs of the car is the batteries and not even Tesla will be able to reach that price point until they have their GigaPlant up and running?

Fletcher: By using GM’s global scale and volume, along with the latest in battery cell and system technology, we’ll deliver on the promise we made for the Bolt EV: 200 miles of range at approximately $30,000 after Federal tax incentives. We’ll have more details to share on the technology that will be used on this vehicle as we get closer to production launch.

Comments

The one question

[Anonymous Coward]

The one question that should have been asked is why are electric/hybrid cars so boil-on-a-buttcheek ugly? The exceptions to the rule (Tesla, BMW i8) are the ones grabbing all the headlines and have all the desirability. Why can't automakers create lower priced electric cars that appeal to the eye?

Re:The one question

[random coward]

Coefficient of drag and cross-sectional area.

Re:The one question

[toadlife]

I actually really like the way the Volt looks. I would not have bought one otherwise. The Volt's back-end is a little Prius-y looking.

IMO, all other EVs in my price range are ugly as hell. The BMW i3 is the absolute worst. I can't believe the same company that designed the i3 designed the i8.

Re:The one question

[Anonymous Coward]

I would buy that if most of the electrics looked like the Model S or the i8, instead they look like a rotting pineapple on wheels. Internal Combustion cars also need to reduce drag and cross-section (arguably more than the electrics), but most of them still manage to look sleek and pretty.

Re:The one question

[HornWumpus]

You are not the target demo.

Prius owners traded in their DL Volvos. They like ugly cars and driving badly.

Re:The one question

[AaronW]

Which is funny, since Tesla has one of the lowest coefficient of drag of any commercial vehicle sold, which just goes to show that you don't have to be butt-ugly to have a low coefficient of drag.

Re:The one question

[tompaulco]

The one question that should have been asked is why are electric/hybrid cars so boil-on-a-buttcheek ugly? The exceptions to the rule (Tesla, BMW i8) are the ones grabbing all the headlines and have all the desirability. Why can't automakers create lower priced electric cars that appeal to the eye?

People looking at the car have to be able to tell that that car is an electric vehicle and not an ICE, in order to properly appreciate how the EV owner is saving the planet. By making it ugly, they can also allow the owner to sacrifice further by not driving a good looking car.

Re:The one question

[Anonymous Coward]

Uh, a Model S does that.

Re:The one question

[Anonymous Coward]

If you dive a car that looks awesome - you can't be a smug hipster. Smug hipsters drive priuses, smart cars, or bio-diesel conversions of ugly ass cars.

Re:The one question

[random coward]

The Tesla has a higher cross sectional area than a prius or a volt(which note are shaped very similarly)

Re:The one question

[Jeremi]

People looking at the car have to be able to tell that that car is an electric vehicle and not an ICE, in order to properly appreciate how the EV owner is saving the planet. By making it ugly, they can also allow the owner to sacrifice further by not driving a good looking car.

That's the cynical answer.

The actual reason that EV cars often look strange is because the designers are trying to make them as aerodynamic as possible in order to extend their range.

As battery power density becomes more adequate, maximizing aerodynamic efficiency will become less of a priority, so in the future you can expect designs that make efficiency tradeoffs in order to get a better look.

Re:The one question

[Anonymous Coward]

Take a look. The car on the left looks weird and cool. The car on the right looks weird and ugly. Most electric or hybrid cars try to resemble the one on the right. It boggles the mind.

Re:The one question

[Cederic]

The one on the right looks practical for a parent with two kids. The one on the left looks expensive.

What, you buy cars purely on aesthetics?

Re:The one question

[AaronW]

It still has a lower coefficient of drag compared to a Prius or a Volt.

The Model S has a coefficient of drag of 0.24. The Prius is 0.26, the Volt is 0.28 and the Leaf is 0.32.

http://insideevs.com/car-drive...

Even though the Tesla Model S is quite a bit bigger, it is the same as a Prius at 6.2 feet CdA.

Re:The one question

[Anonymous Coward]

According to this page, BMW i3 coefficient of drag is 0.29, the lowly Mazda 3 hatchback is 0.28, and the Toyota Auris hatchback is 0.277. Heck, the Prius and Sonata hybrids are 0.26 and 0.25 respectively. The i3 is both less aerodynamic and uglier than some regular ICE/hybrid cars on the market right now, for no real purpose than looking different. It's not a matter of aesthetics, it's a matter of paying $43K for the privilege of driving something that looks like a baboon's wart with crappy range.

Sure, electrics have shortcomings. People willing to pay a premium and tolerate those shortcomings should be compensated by beautiful design. Tesla manages to do it, and the overexpensive i8 manages to do it. The Volt and the Leaf are nausea inducing, and the i-MiEV and the i3 are vomit inducing.

Re:The one question

[BevanFindlay]

Look at the wheelbase length and wheelbase-length-to-cabin-length ratio. Our perceptions of "cool" with cars is long, low, and sleek. Considering that most electric cars are aiming at inner-city driving, a short wheelbase and overall reduction in size would be key design metrics. Also, the long front we have got used to with internal combustion engines is totally unnecessary in an electric car really (except that you do need to put the batteries somewhere, and to provide a crumple zone in the event of a crash). Bring all that together, and the ideal vehicle shape (from a purely engineering standpoint) is short, squat, and kind of boxy (to maximise interior space while minimising overall spatial footprint). Also, for inner-city driving, aerodynamics is kind of a moot point - considering that drag is a function of the square of speed, at low speeds it makes no difference.

So, the reality is probably that they look kind of ugly because the design is being dictated by the engineers not the marketers, which surely the /. crowd could applaud? (Too many things are designed with form ahead of function - including a lot of parts of cars).

The exceptions (long, sleek, "cool") like Tesla's offering are because that's designed to be a performance car, so the aerodynamic (and form) components of the design become more important.

One thing I have found interesting is that electric cars haven't gone for anything (yet) which is dramatically different to "normal" car designs, considering other forms become quite possible with the dramatically smaller drivetrain and quite alternative energy storage shapes (batteries don't need to be shaped like a fuel tank). Most likely this comes down to compliance with safety and other regulations - and the fact that probably no one would buy it if it looked too different - but it could be interesting to see what variation we see in future vehicle forms.

Re:The one question

[tompaulco]

The actual reason that EV cars often look strange is because the designers are trying to make them as aerodynamic as possible in order to extend their range.

Well, then they should make them look more like cool cars, because most cool cars have much lower total drag area than EVs. My BMW sedan has about the same Coefficient of Drag as the Nissan Leaf, but about 30% less front surface area.
The aerodynamic aspect can't really be an argument since ICE car manufacturers are also interested in higher mileage, so they have just as much reason to make cars aerodynamic as EV manufacturers.

Re:The one question

[Twinbee]

This keeps being repeated, but why then is the Tesla Model S so good looking (and its aerodynamic efficiency is one of the highest)?

When will their price be on par with ICE cars?

[NotDrWho]

The bare bones Volt is still $35k. That's not exactly in Tesla territory, but it's still double what you would pay for a small economy ICE vehicle.

Re:When will their price be on par with ICE cars?

[Martin Blank]

The Volt and that small, economy, ICE vehicle aren't quite the same markets. Having test-driven a Volt, it was a hell of a lot more fun than those smaller cars, with significantly better acceleration and handling. We would have bought it, had my wife (who would have been the primary driver) not had a problem with driver-side visibility, as a cross-bar in the rear driver-side window was right at her eye level when looking over her shoulder.

Re:When will their price be on par with ICE cars?

[toadlife]

Battery prices have been dropping like a rock for the last several years. Price parity should come very soon, and it will probably neatly coincide with the expiration of the federal tax subsidies.

Re:When will their price be on par with ICE cars?

[toadlife]

I bought one last September and love it. My previous car was a 2004 Sonata and I wanted to move onto something a bit more luxurious. I had my mind set on a 3 series or possibly a entry level Mercedes, but the more I read about the Volt (not from Fox News), the more I became intrigued.

You are right about the visibility though. It's pretty bad.

Re:When will their price be on par with ICE cars?

[FlyHelicopters]

The Volt and that small, economy, ICE vehicle aren't quite the same markets.

Nonsense, they are...

You clearly need to go drive some more cars, the $35k a Volt will cost you will buy a LOT of fun cars.

The Volt simply makes no economic sense, that 70k people have bought one doesn't make it so, it just means that not everyone buys cars due to what makes economic sense.

Well duh, most cars are purchased emotionally... Otherwise the Mustang would never sell :)

Re:When will their price be on par with ICE cars?

[FlyHelicopters]

Battery prices have been dropping like a rock for the last several years. Price parity should come very soon, and it will probably neatly coincide with the expiration of the federal tax subsidies.

When the Volt costs $20k without tax subsidies, call me.

I'll bet we won't see it for a very long time, and not "very soon".

Re:When will their price be on par with ICE cars?

[Anonymous Coward]

The Volt simply makes no economic sense

Those people who have some bizarre philosophical opposition to alternative fuel vehicles sure are easy to spot (they're the same people who are opposed to solar and wind too). Even in California where we're paying $0.15 - $0.20 per kWh of electricity, electric vehicles save so much gas that they almost pay for themselves. The economics are indisputable.

I drive about 45 miles round trip to work each day. In my 4-cylinder Honda Accord it cost me about $8 each day in gas ($175 a month). In a Chevy Volt that same trip costs about $2.50 in electricity ($55 a month). Even if the state decided to recoup my "unpaid" gasoline taxes, the trip would be $3.30 per day. That $120 per month savings in gas is enough to "buy" a $7,000 price premium over 5 years, and more if amortized longer.

Hell, don't take my word for it. Edmunds pegs the total cost of ownership of a Honda Accord sedan over 5 years at north of $40,000 and a Volt at $38,000.

All of the economics are also ignoring that your gas guzzler is getting a free ride by not having the economics costs of your carbon emissions priced into each gallon of gas you burn. The price is artificially low for carbon fuels and STILL electric cars beat them on economics.

Re:When will their price be on par with ICE cars?

[chrisfer]

After tax credits, most people pay mid to low $20's for their Volts. I paid 25.5k. So nowhere near double a small economy ICE. And the Volt is not an economy-style car... test drive one and see! If all we care is about is saving money, we'd all buy new Versas for $14k (or better yet, a used car for much less). But drive a Versa and drive a Volt (or any other mid $20's car) and you'll see what you pay for.

Re:When will their price be on par with ICE cars?

[Falc0n]

Except have you looked at the price of slightly used Volts? You can get a 2012 or 2013 between $16,000 and $21,000 with under 20k miles!

New ones have an MSRP of $35, but most are actually leaving the lots at 30k. Add a $7500 rebate, and you're talking low-mid 20s new.

And a volt is not really comparable to the cruze it was built from. I own a Volt, and drove a Cruze for 2 weeks as a rental. Its sluggish, loud, unrefined, everything you'd expect from a $15,000 new car. The volt on the otherhand is quite zippy, advanced, quite, comfortable, etc.

The topping on the cake is the fact that in the NW you'll pay only $30/mo in electricity, assuming you recharge fully every night. Since I don't drive every day, its closer to $12-18/mo on 120v.

Re:When will their price be on par with ICE cars?

[chrisfer]

Which economy cars are you saying are comparable to a Volt? Have you driven a Volt? Per Edmunds, Volt has the lowest TCO of Civic EX, Jetta TDI, Mazda3, and a Subaru Outback or Impreza (all the cars I was considering when I bought my Volt). How does it not make economic sense? Just because it costs more than barebones Versa?

Re:When will their price be on par with ICE cars?

[Anonymous Coward]

Average price of gas is around 3 dollars, so in 45 miles you burn approx 2.6 gallons of fuel in a 4 banger?

My ten year old Altima would burn about 1.5 gallons on 45 miles.

You must have either a really heavy foot, or you spend that 45 miles in real bad traffic.

Re:When will their price be on par with ICE cars?

[toadlife]

I don't care what you think. You obviously have your mind made up.

Re:When will their price be on par with ICE cars?

[toadlife]

Average price of gas is around 3 dollars,

Not in California.

Re:When will their price be on par with ICE cars?

[Anonymous Coward]

You clearly need to go drive some more cars, the $35k a Volt will cost you will buy a LOT of fun cars.

The Volt simply makes no economic sense, that 70k people have bought one doesn't make it so, it just means that not everyone buys cars due to what makes economic sense.

Considering the depreciation on a new automobile versus a used automobile, new car purchases are not driven by minimizing TCO, regardless if they are ICE or EV.

What drives vehicle sales is marketing: aesthetics, FUD, status, etc. Just look at the commercials. That new vehicle is all about how cool you are, or how manly you are, or requirements to transport half the contents of your home and your entire family safely and with plenty of room, etc.

EVs are just a way to advertise how environmentally aware you are.

Re:When will their price be on par with ICE cars?

[Amazing Proton Boy]

Agreed. Right now you can buy a brand new Prius for $21k and get 49.7 MPG in real world driving. I love the idea of an e-vehicle and will buy one as soon as the numbers work but we just aren't there yet.

Re:When will their price be on par with ICE cars?

[slinches]

Current CA gas prices are $3.80/gal. If he's spending $8/ day in gas that means his Accord must be using 2.1 gal per day for the 45 mile commute, giving 21.4mpg. That's about what my mid-size truck gets (and the list cost was less than a base level Accord).

The thing that really makes it uneconomical is that (unless your current vehicle has been totaled) the cost of gas saved per year should be compared to the total purchase price of the Volt less the difference in operating/maintenance costs over 2/5/10 year intervals, not just the "EREV/hybrid premium" alone. This type of calculation almost always comes out in favor of keeping your current vehicle until the cost of repairs gets to be a large portion of what a new car payment would be. In fact, the only vehicle that I know of that can actually pay for itself in gas savings is the Elio and that's because the thing only costs $6800 and will likely get over 60mpg (assuming they eventually go into production).

Re:When will their price be on par with ICE cars?

[FlyHelicopters]

Which economy cars are you saying are comparable to a Volt? Have you driven a Volt?

Go drive a new Ford Focus SE with the appearance package, you might be shocked at what $20k gets you these days.

That is a heck of a fun little car that comes with a whole lot of stuff that can be purchased for about $20k. It also sips fuel to the point where you'll replace it before the Volt pays for itself.

Re:When will their price be on par with ICE cars?

[FlyHelicopters]

I don't care what you think. You obviously have your mind made up.

As do you... that door swings both ways...

If I'm wrong, then fair enough... but a whole lot of people are "so sure" that these things will be cheap as chips in no time flat...

I think you're going to be disappointed...

Time will tell..

Re:When will their price be on par with ICE cars?

[toadlife]

Of course it always makes the most financial sense to keep an old car (or not drive at all if possible), but people don't *want* old cars.

Re:When will their price be on par with ICE cars?

[toadlife]

Sure.

I built one to match the features of the Volt and the base price climbed to $23.1K. After rebates, my loaded Volt cost 28K.

The focus is a nice little car. I like Ford vehicles. But it's still a buzzy little gas guzzler and it only gets 36MPG highway.

I'm getting 80MPGe in my Volt and drive 20K miles a year. With free workplace charging (from a Solar array BTW), my daily 79 mile commute costs me $1.03-1.50 in my Volt, depending on the weather. At 36MPG highway and current gas prices, which are historically normal, that same commute would cost $7.26 per day in the Focus.

I keep my cars for a very long time. My last car was a 2004 Sonata. If I were one of the many people who swap out their cars every 4 years, the Volt would certainly make much less sense.

Re:When will their price be on par with ICE cars?

[Anonymous Coward]

When the Volt costs $20k without tax subsidies, call me.

Ok, what's your number?

Seriously, what are you considering buying that beats the Volt? I compared it to Altima, Sonata, Fusion, etc. Regular or hybrid versions. All $19-21k, used in all cases, all 1-2 years old, less than 20k miles, no tax credits no way no how. And against all others the Volt was nicer inside, so quiet I could have a conversation. For me wind and road noise usually means I can't hear anybody talking well enough to understand and participate. In regular cars I just drive or ride in isolation until the trip is over. And I'm comparing to a high end Altima, not a cheap little econo-box.

Maybe it just doesn't fit your driving habits. I think in general people that drive more per day don't like it, and would not be happy with it. A daily routine for work > gym > groceries totaling 30 miles means I have spent $20 on gas in the past 6 months. It matters not if you want to "save the planet" or don't give a shit - the fact is that consumption is way down, and so is operating cost.

When you are talking about the price eventually being on par with ICE powered cars, as if it weren't already better, I think you might be missing some data. Purchase cost? Equal. Fuel cost? 10%. Hey, electricity costs are different in different places. I don't care if it works out to 8% or 20% wherever you live. I save money every day and the car itself didn't cost any more than the alternatives.

I'm not disappointed at all. It's nice and I save money. What more do you want from your car?

Re:When will their price be on par with ICE cars?

[Anonymous Coward]

Unfortunately they will never make sense for some of us.

I drive so few miles per year that the break even is more like 15+ years for me :(
That is assuming I had a reason to compare to a new car which I can't think of. The $5000 price break on the used SUV with horrible mileage went much farther than a few dollars each month on a Toyota or Subaru much less an hybrid that costs $25k more. I don't think it will make it 50 years to pay for itself!

Physically a full electric would be awesome, I rarely drive 50 miles a day. Economically, no car makes the most sense but I don't wish to spend 3 hours to get to the store 2 miles away.

Will there be such a critter to buy in a hybrid? The car I got is 10 years old but like new and very, very low mileage. Batteries don't age so well so they?

Re:When will their price be on par with ICE cars?

[FlyHelicopters]

I built one to match the features of the Volt and the base price climbed to $23.1K. After rebates, my loaded Volt cost 28K.

Take the rebate away and tell me the price. I could make the Volt free with enough of other people's money.

The focus is a nice little car. I like Ford vehicles. But it's still a buzzy little gas guzzler and it only gets 36MPG highway.

Since when did 36MPG become "bad"?

"Gas guzzler?" Really?

I'm getting 80MPGe in my Volt and drive 20K miles a year. With free workplace charging

All, more of that "free stuff" from other people... those solar panels weren't "free".

Re:When will their price be on par with ICE cars?

[ncc74656]

Even in California where we're paying $0.15 - $0.20 per kWh of electricity, electric vehicles save so much gas that they almost pay for themselves.

Only because you're getting ass-raped on gasoline as well. When I topped off the gas tank here in Vegas before driving down to LA last weekend to visit my nieces, I paid $3.04. I pulled over in Baker for a snack. The gas station next to the jerky place wanted somewhere around $4.50! Granted, Baker's never been the cheapest, but gas in Barstow was still around $3.70. I think it was $4.something around LA, and by the time I was running on fumes Sunday morning (driving down to San Diego to make everything worse), I ended up paying right at $4 per gallon ($3.999, if you want to be pedantic) for a full tank in Carlsbad.

Gasoline is sent to Las Vegas from California by pipeline, so how is it we're paying considerably less for the same fuel after it's been pumped through ~300 miles of pipe?

Re:When will their price be on par with ICE cars?

[toadlife]

I get it. you disagree with the government subsidizing technologies.

Gas would be $8.00 to $10.00 a gallon if not for government subsidies of our oil industry, so you'll have to excuse me for not giving a shit.

Re:When will their price be on par with ICE cars?

[FlyHelicopters]

Gas would be $8.00 to $10.00 a gallon if not for government subsidies of our oil industry, so you'll have to excuse me for not giving a shit.

That is simply not accurate...

Gas would be $8 a gallon if they taxed it the way Europe does, the government gives tax breaks for investment, the same way they do to all businesses.

But you're simply misinformed as to how much that really is. This concept of "oil subsidies" is just nonsense.

Re:When will their price be on par with ICE cars?

[Martin Blank]

Land prices are lower, delivery costs are lower, and taxes are lower. The first is the reason prices are lower in Barstow than LA and the second why prices are lower in LA than in Baker. It's always been a bad idea to fuel up along I-15 at anyplace other than major endpoints, and maybe Barstow/Victorville.

Re:When will their price be on par with ICE cars?

[Martin Blank]

I drive a lot of small, economy cars through travel, probably in the range of a dozen or so per year. Not one of them had anything near the fun of driving the Volt, except for the one time I landed in a Mini Cooper.

Keep in mind that most of those small, economy cars don't cost anywhere near $35,000. With some upgrades that move them closer to that price point, they become more fun to drive, but I don't think even those launch like the Volt did.

Re:When will their price be on par with ICE cars?

[speederaser]

This concept of "oil subsidies" is just nonsense.

Oil subsidies are huge, a fact you can easily confirm with a few seconds of Googling. Here's what I found in less than 10 seconds:

http://priceofoil.org/fossil-f...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
http://www.taxpayer.net/images...

One more question

[countSudoku()]

Glad I missed this earlier.

Yes, I have a question? Will I die if I put more than one fucking key on my keyring when I use one of your faulty, shitty vehicles? Yes, okay. Thanks!

Re:One more question

[toadlife]

Yes.

You will die.

Non-answers

[bananaquackmoo]

I don't like to be a hater but those were a bunch of disappointing non-answers.

Re:Non-answers

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm with you. It was sanitized corporate-speak. I didn't learn anything from reading any of the answers...

Re:Non-answers

[Anonymous Coward]

Was this a paid advertisement for GM? She provided almost no information beyond what a GM commercial would have...

Re:Non-answers

[Anonymous Coward]

Were you surprised?
I'd bet more lawyers at GM looked over these answers then slashdot readers will.

Re:Non-answers

[Anonymous Coward]

All of /. has become a paid advertisement.

Re:Non-answers

[ShanghaiBill]

I'm with you. It was sanitized corporate-speak. I didn't learn anything from reading any of the answers...

She sounded more like a PR droid than a nerd. She couldn't even give a straight answer to question about ultra-caps, which are an absolutely idiotic technology for primary storage (they may make sense for regenerative braking capture, but that wasn't the question). This was a very disappointing interview.

Re:Non-answers

[gstoddart]

Or, you know, she can't talk about future technology decisions because it would either violate confidentiality agreements or SEC rules for insider trading.

I've personally been someone who had to (for purely technical reasons) suddenly become classed as an insider for trading purposes for the remainder of a quarter -- because I suddenly knew something which could materially relate to future financial statements or hint at deals which aren't yet public.

Our research and development teams are working on various solutions when it comes to energy storage but I can't provide specifics as to what exactly we're focused on for the future.

I don't even think it's that unusual for an executive chief engineer to more or less have to say "I'm not allowed to talk to you about that".

Did you expect her to release trade secrets and future company directions just for an interview? Because that would be silly.

Re:Non-answers

[Anonymous Coward]

Same AC from earlier trying to troll this into an anti feminism thread.

Re:Non-answers

[Anonymous Coward]

To be fair, it's tough to clear the bar set by the John McAfee questions where he explained how to organize all your hookers and bribe 3rd world police while running drugs.

Re:Non-answers

[towermac]

Well, it was a darned good question about heavier trucks and using the electric system to power accessories.

Her answer to that was the worst of them all, and that is saying something. It may be the case that they have a 2500 Farm Volt close to ready, and they're worried Dodge is going to steal it out from under them. But unlikely.

She should not have agreed to answer any questions, if she was not allowed to in the first place.

Re:Non-answers

[Anonymous Coward]

Where is that interview, I'd kill to see that one.

Re:Non-answers

[Kiyyik]

Yeah, they do seem to have been run through a legal/marketing filter, don't they? Certainly don't sound like engineer's answers. I have a sneaking suspicion that her actual answers were swooped upon by serious people in serious suits until we got the above. Frankly, I kept expecting the phrase:

"Thank you for asking. Your question is very important to us. Unfortunately we cannot answer your question at this time. Please ask again later. Thank you. [BEEP]"

To pop up.

Still, the few little nuggets of info we did get were pretty neat. I like about getting more recharge stations in new home building, and standardizing the charger plugs. Hopefully those will have spread a bit more by the time these suckers get down to my price level.

Re:Non-answers

[Anonymous Coward]

Wrong about each point, fuccboi!

Re:Non-answers

[AaronW]

I agree. It also just goes to show how far behind GM is compared to Tesla. I've had my Tesla Model S for over two years and I have to say that GM's response has been pathetic at best. Their Cadillac ELR was supposed to be the Tesla killer, it failed miserably. Tesla is years ahead when it comes to battery technology, having much higher energy density at much lower cost. Tesla's skateboard design is also much better when it comes to interior room and storage space.

Saying a 3.3KW charger is adequate is a joke. The only reason that it's even possible to go up to 20KW with the SAE J1772 connector is because Tesla fought hard for it. I have a 20KW charger at home and it comes in handy. Sadly few public charging stations come anywhere near that, though most I've used will handle at least 6KW (30-32A, 208/240V) and the RV hookups are often 10KW (40A, 240V). Usually I rarely bother to use the public charging units unless they're free since it's cheaper to just charge at home where I can charge at 80A, 240V which adds around 55 miles of range per hour. The one time I had to use a public charging station to reach my destination it was painful since it only added 18 miles of range per hour so I was stuck an hour waiting until I had enough range to reach the Gilroy supercharger. Fortunately it looks like by the end of the year they'll have a spot around Monterey.

GM also has no real answer to Tesla's supercharger network which is years ahead of anyone else. I just used it a few days ago to travel from the Bay Area to Reno. In every case, it took longer for me to eat lunch or dinner than it took for my car to charge. Hell, I added 40 miles of range (which I didn't even need) when I stopped in Truckee just to use the restroom and pick up a 6-pack of hard cider at Safeway. Tesla's network is building out very quickly (go to their supercharger site to see). I made the same trip to Reno last year but this year there were 4 more superchargers along the route. Last year I had to make a short jog over to Folsom to charge, this year I had my choice of places along the route. Right now there are multiple routes across the country. I can drive all the way from San Diego to Edmonton, Canada or anywhere along the East Coast. By the end of this year it looks like most of the major north/south routes in California will be covered, 5, 101 and 395 and by the end of next year 99 will also be covered. They have also been helping seed a lot of hotels around the country with 20KW chargers in a lot of the vacation spots.

As far as batteries go, Panasonic may be manufacturing Tesla's batteries, but Tesla owns much of the intellectual property of their batteries and holds numerous patents on them. The Tesla batteries are quite a bit cheaper with a higher energy density and they seem to be fairly reliable as well.

Tesla has also shown that it's possible to create a car with a very low coefficient of drag that isn't butt ugly. I say this as a former Prius owner.

Re:Non-answers

[Anonymous Coward]

I work for a Fortune 500 company that is publicly traded. I can answer questions without violating NDAs or running afoul of the SEC just fine. This was, for the most part, a series of easy questions and instead we got many and varied lines of bullshit.

No one asked anything wildly proprietary, or about forward-looking financials, or anything else that a competitor could jump all over. And instead we got "Do you know we have more green patents than anyone else?"

If this story was sponsored by Dice you guys would be all over it like a fly on a pile of very seductive manure.

Re:Non-answers

[Anonymous Coward]

I think this is one of the few times I would approve of someone throwing lmgtfy at someone.

None the less, here you go.

Re:Non-answers

[ShanghaiBill]

Or, you know, she can't talk about future technology decisions

Pro-tip: If you are not allowed to answer questions, then don't do interviews. She could have avoided wasting everyone's time, including her own.

Re:Non-answers

[dave420]

The above message brought to you by new and improved Wanton Cynicism(TM)!

Re:Non-answers

[foxalopex]

I agree the Cadillac ELR was a poor response to the Tesla S but the Volt is an excellent car. GM didn't get it all wrong. For starters, the average person finds the Volt slightly expensive to own, nevermind the Telsa S which is even more out of range for the average Joe making it even more of a pipe dream. Another huge problem is that the supercharger network doesn't go everywhere, there's not a single supercharger to be found in NorthWestern Ontario which is fairly remote and we suffer from very extreme winters. If I owned a Telsa S here, I could never leave my city with it.

Every year I go cross country across Canada on a trip equivalent to 1,200 miles one way. I would guess that if a supercharger network existed, it would add four hours to the trip because of the need of having to stop to charge up. If you're in a rush to get through your roadtrip because I often run non-stop, then a supercharger network would definitely be slower. Cars are also suppose to be about freedom right? The fact that there are gas stations virtually everywhere means the Volt can fuel up anywhere with very few worries where I can see from your note that you need to pay special attention to where charging points are.

Tesla uses a version of Laptop Lithium batteries, the Volt uses a much safer phosphate class Lithium battery which you find in some solar lawn lights. It isn't hard to figure out the difference in the news articles. The Volt has not suffered a single battery fire in the real world except when the coolent caught on fire after it dried out. They apparently cracked open a Volt battery pack and left it in the junk yard for a week. In comparison, a Telsa S's battery pack will most certainly catch on fire if you manage to puncture it. There's no magic in Telsa's battery pack. GM decided that they would go with a safer, near impossible to catch on fire battery type but the trade-off is less capacity for weight. Telsa went the riskier way because they have little choice, there's no backup engine and running out of range isn't a solution so a rare fire from shattering the battery pack probably isn't a big deal. Except that GM knew that the public is highly sensitive to this issue.

There's also a question on Tesla's future. Believe it or not they haven't made any money as a company. Their stock sells mostly from hype. Not that GM's that different in that the Volt barely makes GM much money either but at least they are able to use that technology in their other car ventures such as in the hybrid Malibu and other upcoming cars. I don't dislike Tesla, they helped open the door to EV's but to me it seems that their future looks a bit shaky compared to some of Musk's other ventures like SpaceX.

Re:Non-answers

[AaronW]

As it is, there have been more Volt fires than Tesla fires. In three separate tests the Volts tested by the NTSB caught fire. There was at least one Volt that have caught fire, one after it was rear-ended and the 12v battery caused it to burn up, completely burning up the interior of the car. None of the Tesla fires affected the passenger compartment.

Since Tesla's change there has not been a single new fire in the Tesla. Tesla is losing money, but they're doing what they need to do. All that money is being spent on growth which is required. They're making a 28% profit on every car sold and that money is being folded back into the company. The money is being spent on designing and tooling up the model X and model 3, which is exactly what they should be doing, as well as the gigafactory and building out their charging network, building service centers, etc. Given the demand for the model X (over 26,000 pre-orders) and their grid storage (sold out for the next year within a week), it looks like they're making the right choices.

The company is in a rapid growth phase. It would kill them to stop and try and be profitable now (which is what a short-sighted Wall Street CEO would do), since they need to look ahead to the future. Their future looks fairly bright given the high demand and customer satisfaction, especially given that they're doing virtually no advertising.

GM's Volt, while popular with Volt owners, has not been flying off the lots. It has been outsold by the Leaf, BMW i3 and Model S recently.

As for Ontario, I would not be surprised if they build out there in time. They're prioritizing their network based on need, building out the routes most owners need before building out less common routes. Their map of proposed chargers seems to be constantly changing, where I see superchargers popping up in places or along routes that were not previously shown. As far as cold climates, given it's one of the most popular cars in Norway my guess is that it does quite well in cold climates.

While the chemistry may be similar to laptop batteries, the batteries are NOT laptop batteries. There are many differences in order to increase the longevity and reliability and to reduce costs. Fires are a non-issue. There were a few and Tesla went back and addressed the problem and there have been none since. The risk of fire is much lower than for a gasoline powered car. The instances that caused the fires were rather extreme when you consider one of them was due to the car plowing through a concrete wall at 110MPH. Everyone walked away from that, I don't know that you could say the same thing if that happened with a Volt, if it could even reach 110MPH. The other was from running over a heavy duty trailer hitch which stuck up like a lance. Given where it hit, it would have seriously injured the driver of a Volt if it had happened since it would have gone right through the sheetmetal floor and into the driver's legs. In all cases, the fires did not affect the passenger compartment and they were rather slow burning. The one with the trailer hitch was made much worse by the fire department, who cut a hole in the top of the battery pack.

As for shaky companies, one of those companies recently declared bankruptcy and had a massive recall over a problem that was known for years that killed and injured a lot of people. When the model 3 comes out I don't think there will be much comparison between the Bolt and the model 3. Tesla will have a huge advantage over GM since their cost of batteries will be significantly lower and their batteries will be smaller and more energy dense. Tesla's electric motors are also less expensive since induction motors do not contain any rare-earth magnets. With the skateboard design Tesla uses the handling should also be better and it should have more space inside. It also wouldn't surprise me if Tesla offered all wheel drive for the M3 and incorporated other technologies from the Model S like self-driving support. Tesla also manufactures much more of their own stuff than GM. GM

Patents

[Anonymous Coward]

Wrong crowd to brag about your green patents to. Open them up to push the technology farther and for the goodwill of the community.

Re:Patents

[Imagix]

I was going to mention the same thing. The response to "Tesla has opened a bunch of their patents" had the answer of "Look! We have a bunch of patents!". Yeah, missing the point...

Re:Patents

[Sowelu]

Eh, hardware companies have a way different perspective about patents than software ones. If your company's been around for many decades and products take many years to develop and get to market (unlike software), patents are way more effective at their job of "put your ideas on paper and show them to the world". Having a short term monopoly on that idea is awfully brief when it takes so long to build up public infrastructure.

Re:Patents

[Anonymous Coward]

Tesla opened up the patents where they don't think they can make money and kept the ones that they believe will make money in the future. why didn't they open all their patents

Re:Patents

[Anonymous Coward]

Oh you have the most "green" patents. So you are the single biggest entity preventing the use of green technology in cars. Way to go!

Too bad we don't own the cars we buy from GM

[Anonymous Coward]

Too bad we don't own the cars we buy from GM....

Someone should have asked her about that....

What's the difference between a car salesman

[Anonymous Coward]

and a computer salesman?

The car salesman knows when he is lying.

No Comment

[Wintermute__]

Why bother to have an interview if you're not going to answer any questions?

"That’s something I can’t speculate on.

We continue to study other potential markets...

While I can’t comment on potential future vehicles and technologies...

Again, I can’t say much on the possibility of a EREV SUV other than we know it’s something Volt fans would love to have in their garage. ...we continue to study the development of sensible technologies...

I can’t provide specifics as to what exactly we’re focused on for the future.

What our plans are ... is something we’ll discuss in the future.

  We’ll have more details to share on the technology that will be used on this vehicle as we get closer to production launch."

Re:No Comment

[FlyHelicopters]

Why bother to have an interview if you're not going to answer any questions?

Exactly, she didn't actually say anything... She could have saved herself the trouble and just stayed home that day, same outcome...

Re:No Comment

[Anonymous Coward]

I take it you have never talked to a Senior Executive of a Major Multi-National Corporation before.
They ALL talk like that, ALL THE TIME. It's part of the Job Description (and a pathological fear of an inadvertent "Gotcha" moment that ends their career since there are plenty of "long knives" waiting in the wings of the Corporation to climb over their still-warm corpse.)
If you are ever (un)lucky enough to play golf with a few of them, well, after a few drinks they open up a lot, but only to their peers.

Re:No Comment

[slinches]

This wasn't supposed to be an interview with a senior executive. A "Chief Engineer" should be the person responsible for making all of the critical technical decisions for the product line, not a PR suit. The whole point of these interviews is to have a frank/open discussion between an expert on the technical aspects of a product and the relatively tech savvy and intelligent people who frequent /.

Instead we get this. Lame.

Chief Engineer Politician

[CrashNBrn]

I was wondering if it was just me. Almost every sentence/answer began with what *sounded* like it would actually be an answer then diverted to GM is great. We have data. We are looking into shit... Ah good to know, I didn't realize companies that made stuff looked into shit.

How the hell does a "Chief Engineer" talk like a politician? Oh right, cuz the Chief Engineer didn't answer any of the damned questions.

Its not just a range anxiety issue

[Anonymous Coward]

If we are truth the range anxiety issues are not going to be solved by placing quick charge stations everywhere. The range anxiety issues will be solved when we don't have to worry about stopping period in a day trip to charge our vehicle as we can do now with most gasoline vehicles. The ideal of replacing something should at least equal the expectations of what it is replacing. In other words, you want to replace gasoline vehicles with electric. Then make them perform and have the same results. Sure some people buy EV vehicles for a novelty or they really can accept their limitations and have no problem investing in something new. The problem is EV's are not the Model T of this century. The model T replaced the horse and buggy a obvious step up in transportation advancement. The electric vehicle today is almost the opposite going back to having more stops, not to feed the horses. But to feed the battery. This is why EV's must advance technology in batteries before large numbers of buyers come around. Range is not only a anxiety for the EV owner but the EV maker too.

Re:Its not just a range anxiety issue

[AaronW]

My experience driving my Tesla for two years is that the whole range anxiety thing is disappearing very quickly. I just got back from a trip from the Bay Area to Reno and back. In every case where I stopped to grab lunch or dinner my car was fully charged before I finished my meal. In one case I stopped just to make a quick pit stop and pick up a 6-pack of cider and by the time I returned to my car I had added another 40 miles of range, and the only reason I stopped was I had to stop, not my car. I had my choice of places where I could stop too as well as a choice in routes I could take. The car also tells me how much range I will have once I reach the destination and will route me to superchargers along the way if needed. This is a vast improvement over a year ago when I made the same trip. A year ago there was one supercharger that was somewhat off the route. I had to go to Folsom to charge then switch over to highway 80. I arrived in Reno with around 20 miles of range left. This time the software was updated to automatically take the superchargers into account. By the end of this year it looks like 5, 101 and 395 will be well covered for north/south and by next year 99 will also be covered. I can also charge at just about any RV park that has power hookups and Tesla has been seeding 20KW chargers at many hotels in vacation areas like Carmel and Monterey. By the time their low cost car will be available you should be able to drive just about anywhere.

The time for charging is not the big deal people make it out to be. In most cases there are places to eat or shop close by.

On the return trip I stopped in Truckee to grab a quick bite at a Panda Express. Before I finished my car was fully charged. I could have driven a lot further but I was hungry. Later I stopped in Manteca to charge and eat and again, my car was fully charged well before I finished eating. Charging is not like filling up with gas. When filling up my gas car I need to get out of the car and stand there filling it up. There is no reason to stay at the car while it is charging although you could. It's also a chance to stretch your legs and use the money you would normally spend on gas on food or other things.

What was the point of this?

[Anonymous Coward]

I honestly don't understand the point of this Q&A. The community asked real questions but got PR fluff responses. Why even bother asking the questions if they are going to be answered like that?

Re:What was the point of this?

[Anonymous Coward]

It's about PR. These traditional car companies are not interested in electric cars, probably because of lower profits compared to ICE cars. But they still have to pretend to care about the technology and consumers.

Translation

[backslashdot]

I took a few Khan academy courses on MBA stuff, so I can translate it from corporate speak to straight talk:

1. Long range outlook: batteries or fuel cells?

Answer: I have no freaking clue bro.

2. Charging at gas stations?

Answer: Not gonna happen.

3. The volt has poor aesthetics, will the GM skateboard's swappable chassis concept become real?

Answer: Some people are buying ugly, so we'll continue to sell it. I am going to ignore your question about the GM skateboard and swappable chassis (which are never gonna happen btw) and talk about fuel cells instead. Fuel cells -- I know nothing about them.

4. Will I be able to buy a Spark EV in Georgia?

Answer: No, we don't sell to hicks. We would only consider selling you guys a car that isn't ever going to be made.

5. What is Chevy's plans to extend the Voltec system into other models such as the Trax and/or the Equinox?

Answer: Never gonna happen. We still want your money though, so why don't you buy one of our cars that use the same floor mat as a Volt?

6. Why don't you guys advertise the Volt?

Answer: Have you seen the documentary "Who killed the electric car?" starring the EV1? Well, we are setting up the Volt to star in the sequel.

7. Will you guys make hybrid pickups again?

Answer: No, we rather sell you the gas guzzlers and get the oil company kickbacks.

8. Are you guys benefitting from Tesla's open patents?

Answer: Yes, but we'll never admit it. Btw, did you know that GM's vagina is much deeper than anyone else's?

9. Would you guys ever use ultracapacitors?

Answer: What's an ultracapacitor? I am going to have to google that one.

10. Would you make the charging go faster?

Answer: No. Deal with it.

11. How is the upcoming Chevy Bolt going to get 200 miles per charge with a base price of $30,000?

Answer: It is impossible.

Re:Translation

[AaronW]

Sadly I agree with your comment. As a Tesla owner it's clear that GM and the others just don't get it. There's a reason that the Cadillac ELR failed miserably and that Tesla is eating everyone else's lunch when it comes to EVs. When gas got cheap, sales of the other EVs fell significantly. Tesla still can't keep up with demand yet they do basically zero advertising. They've worked hard to address all of the issues people have with EVs, including range, charging and performance. The people who complain about how long it takes to charge a Tesla don't have any experience with it.

The only reason that the J1772 standard can handle 20KW is because Tesla fought tooth and nail for it. GM and the others would have been happy with a 3.3KW limit. They also should have adopted something like Tesla's standard for fast DC charging rather than the Frankenstein SAE combo plug or ChaDeMo.

When it comes to battery technology, Tesla is years ahead. Their batteries are much higher capacity and much cheaper than what GM is using.. Despite being manufactured by Panasonic, Tesla owns much of the IP in their batteries and has numerous patents on them. Once their gigafactory comes online, Tesla's cost for batteries will drop by at least 30%. Their cost are already the lowest in the industry in terms of $$$/KWh with the highest energy density for automotive grade batteries.

They've addressed the whole chicken vs egg problem with respect to rapid charging. Instead of waiting for people to build level 3 chargers, they are building their own network and locating them based on need, not just at dealerships (i.e. Nissan). Their chargers are also capable of much higher output than most of the other chargers (120-135KW vs 62.5KW (ChaDeMo) or 90KW (SAE combo)). Tesla has already had several years of experience with their superchargers and already has a large network of them along popular routes. By the time the low cost model 3 comes out they will be just about everywhere, even for out of the way places. Right now there are very few SAE combo chargers and they're primarily located in cities and almost none of them are located along major routes, making it impossible to do road trips without long charge times (especially with only 3.3KW charging!). There are some SAE combo chargers in the Bay Area and Los Angeles, but virtually none in between. Meanwhile I have my choice of routes with Tesla's supercharger network where I can drive from San Diego all the way to Edmonton Canada or to the East Coast. ChaDeMo chargers are also usually located in cities and not between them. They also tend to max out between 40 and 62.5KW. Tesla owners with the ChaDeMo adapter are reporting that many of these ChaDeMo chargers overheat and even start smoking, even when it's 0F outside because they can't handle the load, which is quite a bit less than what the Tesla chargers put out. Thankfully it looks like ChaDeMo is dying out.

Their skateboard design also helps maximize interior and cargo space compared to big humps under the seats and down the center of the car. They redesigned the car from the ground up for their Model S rather than taking an existing gasoline design and converting it to electric. I've taken my Model S places that would be impossible for just about any other EV except maybe the Roadster, and the ease of road trips with it becomes easier all the time.

  They also showed that it's possible to design an EV with a low coefficient of drag that isn't butt ugly or looks weird.

The problem with GM is their marketing is so conservative that they compromise everything all to hell which is why GM's cars are ugly, have limited charging and limited range. I have little doubt that there won't be much comparison between the Tesla Model 3 and the GM Bolt. I think Bolt is what the customers will do when they compare the two.

Re:Translation

[Krishnoid]

6. Why don't you guys advertise the Volt?

Answer: Have you seen the documentary "Who killed the electric car?" starring the EV1? Well, we are setting up the Volt to star in the sequel.

Answer: When we asked for the budget to develop the Volt, top-level decision makers took it out of the ICE budget. Freely and enthusiastically offered internal feedback -- incidentally, from the same group, whose market we would be directly competing with -- bolstered our own projections that requesting additional budget from them for advertising would be counterproductive.

Re:Translation

[AmiMoJo]

Charging at petrol stations isn't very practical. The best thing about EV charging is that you don't have to go out if your way. Charge at home or work, or at your destination. Shopping centres and car parks are where you need chargers, and they can be fairly slow 7kW ones too so infrastructure is less of an issue.

Re:Translation

[Anonymous Coward]

Thankyou.

I was thinking along similar lines, but haven't taken the required course.

Re:Translation

[david_thornley]

What do you mean "fairly slow 7KW"? That's twice as fast as GM is willing to let their vehicles charge. Their idea is apparently that you charge it overnight and where you work, apparently under the impression that eighteen hours a day of charging is reasonable and won't drive anybody to buy a non-GM electric car.

Re:Translation

[AmiMoJo]

3kW is too slow for destination charging. Who wants to wait 8+ hours for a charge?

The sweet spot is 22kW. That will charge a Leaf 80% in about an hour. It doesn't put too heavy demand on the infrastructure and so you can have a few of them in one place, and they are not too expensive either. That makes them ideal for destination charging at say shops or tourist attractions.

Down from that 7kW can be connected to a standard 32A circuit in Europe so is another popular and practical choice. A full charge needs 4 hours but typically no-one runs down to 0% before charging. Again, they are ideal for destination charging where you might stop for 3 hours to do some shopping or see an attraction.

Re:Translation

[dbitter1]

The sweet spot is 22kW.

Pffft. LOL. "Sweet" = Tesla Superchargers, at ~120KW. Do it right. The masses will compare filling up at the dead-dinosaur-juice pump to filling up at the electric station, it should at least be a fair battle. The fact that it is *FREE* at the superchargers seals it.

Her answer of 3.3KW nearly made me spray my screen in laughter... I have a single induction burner with 3.8KW capacity.

Why shouldn't we own our own cars?

[sconeu]

Why does GM claim we only license our cars?

http://boingboing.net/2015/05/21/gm-says-you-dont-own-your-ca.html

EV1

[Geoffrey.landis]

I notice she skipped addressing the questions dealing with the EV1.

Probably necessary, since there is not going to be much more she's likely to be able to add to the subject, but it would be worth hearing anything she did have to say.

Interesting to see the moderators attach women

[Anonymous Coward]

OP made a good point how women like this Pam Fletcher make all women in business look bad. She influences too many people to think that other women got their job just because they're women like she did. It sucks that GM's (misguided) attempt to help women actually hurts them instead.

Re:First "SJW asshole" in ...

[Anonymous Coward]

...1 ...0 ...-1 ...-2 ...-3 ...-4

*crickets*

Re: First "SJW asshole" in ...

[Anonymous Coward]

It's always good when the asshole lookin for a fight doesn't actually get one :) meme-based anger is stupidest anger.

3.3kW is not right

[YesIAmAScript]

While I appreciate the limitations of trying to put a higher powered charger on a car with a small battery like the Volt, you're just plain wrong about the Spark EV.

You may be doing the calculations for overnight home charging. And indeed overnight 3.3kW is fine for a 20kWh battery like in the Spark EV.

But you are selling (leasing) a lot of Spark EVs to people who use and charge the cars at work. These spots are busy charging cars all day and if you have a 3.3kW charger it means your car is perceived as "hogging" the spot because it has to sit there twice as long.

I implore you to put faster chargers on cars which can take them. This will give your cars a better profile among techies. Remember, people are more likely to see and talk about these cars at work than when they are at home hidden in a garage.

And the Spark EV, for example, which can charge at 30+kW using SAE CCS clearly could charge at 6.6kW or more on AC L2 charging too.

Re:3.3kW is not right

[AaronW]

3.3KW is a joke. On my model S, charging it to full at 10KW takes over 10 hours if it's empty. Most people don't drain their battery to zero and don't charge to 100% so it's fine for night time charging. I had no issues using at 5.7KW using my dryer outlet for most stuff, but 3.3 can be painful. Most public chargers I have used are 32A at either 208 or 240v, around 6.6KW. My father has a plug-in hybrid car with a 3.3KW charger and it's rather painful due to how slow it charges. At home I now use a 20KW charger which will fully charge the car in a bit over 5 hours. For my daily driving, around 40-50 miles, my car is fully recharged in about an hour at 20KW. That would change to 6 hours with a 3.3KW charger and if I drive 200 miles it would take almost 24 hours to recharge!

Granted, GM's cars have much smaller batteries, but any serious EV needs more than 3.3KW.

Re:3.3kW is not right

[Twinbee]

3.3kW is absolutely pathetic. Consider that Tesla's supercharger is 120kW, almost 40x more powerful. Even their home chargers can be 3-4x more powerful than that.

Warning for Questionnaire Respondents?

[Surak_Prime]

Just curious: When we have these question/answer paired stories on Slashdot, does anyone at Slashdot ever bother to *warn* the respondent that Slashdotters are going to eviscerate their responses if they come across as a corporate shill and fail to seem like a regular, conversational human being?

It seems like something like this needs to be added at the top of the questions they receive: "Be real, if there's something you can't answer at least try to be funny or sarcastic, and don't seem like a marketing drone."