GM Hosts Press Conference Proving The Success of Their Batteries to Date

General Motors continues the exhaustive testing of the Lithium ion batteries that are so crucial to their upcoming Volt. The electric drivetrain married to this battery pack has been named "Voltec" and will be used in many other GM products, including the Opel Flextreme. Everything we are hearing from GM is positive and they claim to be on track to sell the Chevy Volt in late 2010.

From GM-Volt.com:

GM hosted a press conference on their battery strategy and GMs director of EVs and HEVs Bob Kruse wrote a blog post about it.

As we know, the Volt lithium-ion cell contract went to LG Chem of Korea. Mainly the decision to choose them over A123 was based on the fact that LG was ready with cells sooner, and had a much larger production capacity and longer track record. According to Denise Gray, GM’s advanced battery director, the lithium-manganese chemistry of LG chem was “not significantly different” in energy density or power density characteristics than the lithium iron phosphate chemistry of A123 cells. In fact, A123 cells and packs continue to undergo testing.

GMs main point of the conference was reiterate that they are doing the pack design, engineering, and software controls in-house. So while LG or someone else may make an excellent cell, GM intends to make the best pack and become the worlds best electric car battery make maker. This gives them competitive advantage over car companies that are “married” to a specific cell supplier. Gray is convinced batteries will continue to advance in the future and right now GM is testing cells from “more than a dozen suppliers.”

Kruse confirms GM will soon open a large advanced battery lab within their Warren Technical Center in addition to the Volt’s battery assembly plant. That plant he notes “will be the first lithium-ion battery manufacturing plant operated by a major automaker in the U.S., and will create new “green” jobs.”

He advises us that GM is already working and second and third generation designs for these battery packs, and current ones have already evolved considerably from the first prototype packs GM received a year and a half ago.

Future generation Volt packs will continue to deliver the goal 40 miles of all electric range but will be considerably less expensive. Costs will be cut in several ways. Economy of scale will bring down production costs for the cells. GM and LG are also studying ways to tweak the chemistry perhaps removing expensive elements within the chemical mixture. The packs will also become more refined. ” Fewer parts leads to lower costs,” according to Andrew Farah, the Volt’s lead engineer. In addition to fewer parts Gray notes the current first generation packs have “a lot of bells and whistles” in terms of temperature and control management and suggests this safety overkill may not all needed.

The present crop of mules are performing flawlessly by the accounts of all involved and that the only surprises so far have been “pleasant ones” with respect to how perfectly they and their batteries have been performing.

It was also acknowledged and demonstrated that the Cruze-mules have already undergone considerable crash safety testing. The design of having the battery enclosed in the central tunnel has proven to be extremely safe. The graphic above illustrates what happens to the pack as filmed from below as the mule is crashed into a concrete barrier at 35 mph. Nothing. No breach has occurred.

We are at a turning point. As long as GM can hold on financially we will be seeing some beautiful things called integration vehicles in the coming months.