Frank Weber - Former Lead Volt Engineer - Leaving to Join BMW

The German Opel engineer who held a pivotal role in developing the Chevrolet Volt and European market derivatives was recently hired away by BMW.

Frank Weber will likely be a strong asset to Bavarian Motor Works, which is developing a range of advanced-tech projects from an all-electric i3 to a plug-in hybrid i8, along with models in between and possibly even a range-extended platform.

Indeed BMW, which is known as a proud engineering firm, deviated from its institutional preference to promote from within by hiring Weber. According to Automotive News Europe, Weber will report to BMW’s head of research and development, Klaus Draeger.

Weber started with Opel in 1991 after completing his engineering studies at Darmstadt University and was given several leading roles at the technical development center in Ruesselsheim, including director of advanced concept engineering.

Weber is pictured a few years ago here with GM’s pre-production Volt show car.

His involvement with the Volt began spring of 2007. He was initially hired as E-Flex/Volt VLE a couple months after the concept car was shown in January of that year. He went on to prove himself as GM’s global chief engineer over the Volt project.

For this assignment, Weber showed a deep-level grasp of the range-extended car, and helped expedite it from gleam-in-the-eye concept stage to the serial production car we have now.

In 2008, while the work was still in progress, Weber sat down with GM-Volt.com founder, Dr. Lyle Dennis, to offer his views in an interview that led off with the question: “What was GM’s motivation to build the Volt?”

“Societal challenge,” Weber said, “Look at the future. What you see is that not the industry nor any individual OEM can afford not to believe that this is [the] next big step, because it is the only technology currently available that can make a fundamental difference.”

Another of his quotes laden with visionary tones was, “Many of the things we are currently doing are very fundamental technical decisions that will guide this architecture for years and almost decades.”

GM-Volt’s founder, Dr. Lyle Dennis, interviewed and featured Weber a few times when he was working on the Volt project.

It is sentences like these that indicate Weber had an encompassing mind’s eye view of the engineered possibilities for advanced technology.

After his work on the Volt project had largely been completed, in late 2009 Weber moved back to work as Opel’s head of corporate planning on Opel and Vauxhall projects.

Weber’s hiring by BMW now makes him the second top-tier GM executive to recently jump ship with extensive knowledge of Opel’s future product plans. In October 2010, Volkswagen AG hired former Opel Managing Director Hans Demant to be its senior vice president in charge of international relations.

And while this is only conjecture, it would appear Weber’s thinking may already be making itself felt. It was only about a week ago that BMW announced it would consider a range-extended car.

In any event, Weber’s hiring surely demonstrates BMW’s strong desire to evolve from the maker of “Ultimate Driving Machines” to the maker of ultimate advanced-technology driving machines. Spy photos and videos have shown the company is very busy, as are its European competitors.

BMW did some work with a limited fleet of electric MiniEs, but these are not slated for mainstream production. The first BMW battery electric vehicles are estimated to be in production by 2013. Either the i3 BEV, or i8 plug-in hybrid, or both could be in production by then.

Opel has not yet announced Weber’s replacement.

Source: GM-Volt.com

GM's Frank Weber Describes Current State of Volt Prototypes

Frank Weber is the vehicle line director for General Motors and recently spoke with GM-Volt.com about the current state of testing for the Volt prototype. Currently, GM is using Chevy Cruze bodies with the Voltec powertrain for evaluation of the battery pack and all control systems. After this portion of the testing, GM will place the Voltec innards into a production Volt chassis for final testing.

Much of GM's concern centers on the new Lithium ion battery pack supplied by LG and how best to treat it in order to make it last for 10 years. Large forrmat Lithium battery packs used in electric vehicles are a novelty and no one really knows how they will stand up to the abuse of daily driving. Only one EV has withstood the test of time and the test of mileage, namely the Toytoa RAV4 EV. This particular EV uses Panasonic EV-95 NiMH batteries that have lasted more than 100,000 miles, which is one of GM's requirements.

From GM-Volt.com:

Frank Weber is GM’s straight-shooting vehicle line executive of the Volt program. I had the chance to ask him what was happening with mule development. At this point there are 35 or so developmental mule vehicles. Mules are early prototypes that have the full Voltec drivetrain but a borrowed interior and exterior. Within days the engineering freeze on the first true Volt prototypes or integration cars will occur.

What is the current status of the mules, since you are done with this phase, and where are they in the testing process?
Actually what is happening is we have done all the testing as planned last year. We have been using the winter for winter tests. You are counting in summers and winters. This is a very important phase to test everything under very cold conditions and this is what has been happening now.

So are you still figuring out the control algorithms and computer code?
This is all the standard procedures in a car and you know what to do and we have all those controls incorporated into the cars. But now what’s happening is the true development work that you say OK this is the temperature of the battery, and this is the temperature of the system, and this is what happens when you are plugged in, etc.

There are parameters that we call calibration, you have the basic software functionality on those cars defined, and then we start to calibrate it looking at the temperature and when to we start it, what is the true power of the battery at a certain temperature , etc.

How do you know how the batteries are performing in the mules, and how can you extrapolate forward to know that you hit the right sweet spot to make the battery last 10 years?
What you know is what the behavior is for the cars that we are testing, and then you make an assumption for how a component will behave over time and how it will behave under the same situation in several years. This is what we call accelerated testing. This gives you some indication of durability.

The piece that is tricky and interesting about the battery is to do a really accurate extrapolation of the true behavior. For a mechanical part this is very simple. For a mechanical part you can replicate its lifetime and find out when it will break.

The battery is electrochemical and its more difficult to make those extrapolations. This is part of the learning we have to do, battery learning between the battery supplier LG and us. By the way this is still the element of risk. This is also why we are unable to get the car out any sooner. It is those things that have to be developed now with the components that are representative of the production vehicle. There is no way to do this any faster.

Have you started to build the integration vehicles yet?
No this is a different phase. Mule cars are now completed and have been since last year. They were all built on time. Whats happening now is those mule cars are now being tested up until the middle of 2009 and then they are replaced by the next generation of vehicles which are called integration vehicles. It takes a couple of weeks to complete the build.

Are the internal parts on those more refined than the current generation.
Yes, always. Whats true in the development is if you find something you might make a small adjustment to it to improve it. Its an updated version of those components.

Are you going to take those integration vehicles out of the test grounds and drive them around the real world?
Normally you have to be a little bit careful, but since we’ve shown the world the production version we can in principle take them wherever we want.

Will you?
Only if it is value added. There are a couple of interesting streets in the world where development insight is really generated. Then it might make sense to take then out there. By the way the current mule cars are being taken out on the public roads.

GM's Frank Weber Espouses Easy Upgrade Path for Chevy Volt

Continuing Today's Volt Theme




Frank Weber, GM's Global Vehicle line executive, was questioned recently about the upcoming Chevy Volt and his remarks were inaccurate, to be polite. I will add my notes to the discussion below.

From Automotive News Europe:

General Motors plans to upgrade its upcoming battery-powered Chevrolet Volt once it launches late next year faster than it could overhaul a conventional vehicle, a GM executive said on Tuesday night.
(note: GM talks about upgrades a lot, even though they have not sold a single Volt)

The technology behind the all-electric Volt will allow GM to drive improvements to future versions far more quickly after the battery-powered car goes on sale in 2010, Frank Weber, GM's global vehicle line executive for the Volt, said at an event ahead of the Chicago auto show.

"This is almost like getting software updates into your car," Weber said. "This is not a mechanical world. So, even within a vehicle lifecycle you will see updates that are very significant," he said. GM expects to begin production of the Volt in 2010.

The company has not said when it expects to roll out the second generation of the vehicle, but plans to focus on cutting the size and cost of the battery are a top priority, Weber said. GM has not said how long it will take to produce an offshoot of the Volt.

(note: GM may not be around long enough to produce one Volt, much less announce a second generation)

Weber said his priorities included driving down the size and cost of the Volt's lithium-ion battery for future versions. The 400-pound (181kg) T-shaped battery pack is expected to be the Volt's most expensive element and most important component.

(note: GM only uses half the Lithium ion pack due to its frailty. Using another battery chemistry seems like a good idea to me. If they used the whole pack, its size and cost could be doubled. NiMH battery packs can access ALL their energy so why not use them instead?)

The cells for the battery will be manufactured by Korea's LG Chem. Weber said GM engineers are not focused on extending the vehicle's range beyond 40 miles (64km), a distance seen as the longest most people would drive the car on a daily basis.

(note: A very bad move, not to consider extending the range. BYD Auto in China already makes a Volt-like vehicle with 62 miles range and costs half as much as the Volt.)

"My goal is not to go from 40 to 60 miles in the next generation vehicles," Weber said of the Volt's range. Instead, he said, the battery would be half the size and half the cost of the batteries that go into the current Volt.

(note: see my comments above. It's the battery chemistry stupid)

The drive system designed by GM for the Volt could be applied across the automaker's entire lineup over time, but that is not something Weber said he envisions now.

"Before we talk about diversification on the portfolio side, there is enough market for a vehicle that provides this level of functionality and performance," he said. The Cadillac Converj concept car GM shown at the Detroit auto show in January shows the Volt system could work in a higher-cost luxury model, Weber said.

GM's Volt project sets it apart from other automakers that have been developing pure battery electric vehicles, hybrid electric vehicles and plug-in hybrid vehicles, Weber said.

(note: BYD Auto excepted)

GM believes the Volt's battery-driven system will remain viable over several generations, and battery technology will not progress for some time to a point where pure battery electric vehicles can range hundreds of miles at an affordable price, Weber said.

GM plans to build about 10,000 Volts in the first year of production and eventually push annual output to about 60,000. The car's battery can be recharged at a standard electric outlet. GM has said it does not expect to make money on the first generation of the Volt, making its subsequent launches more important for the struggling automaker.

(note: This is not even close enough vehicles to make any kind of difference. Frank Weber is one reason GM is in the shape it is today)