Obama Motors – The Not For Profit Car Company
It was all about the battery, they will say, while viewing the Chevrolet Volt on its prominent display stand — diagonally across from the Edsel in some car museum of the future.
Obama Motors (OM), formally known as General Motors (GM) has reiterated its commitment to deliver the green Chevrolet Volt, plug-in electric car to showrooms in November 2010 as planned. This despite the fact that President Obama’s own task force concluded that the Volt would be too expensive to be commercially viable. Industry analysts estimate the cost of the Volt will be around $40,000. As a comparison, the price of proven green fuel-efficient vehicles such as the Prius ranges from $22,000 to $24,270 for the base model and the recently introduced, Honda Motor Co.’s Insight hybrid, $19,800 to $23,100.
Obama’s task force also concluded that Obama Motors (OM) is a generation behind Toyota in advanced “green” power-train development. Back to the drawing board would be the logical next step or alternately a joint venture with a company that actually knows how to make a green fuel-efficient car.
For example, Toyota is readying a limited run of a plug-in Prius with its proven power-train, which can average 100 miles per gallon. The regular Prius relies more on its gas engine, switching to use of the electric motor in slow traffic, to maintain cruising speed, or when idling or backing up. The regular Prius doesn’t have to be plugged in because its battery stays charged by the gas motor and by the motion of the wheels and brakes. The new plug-in version will primarily use its electric motor, allowing commuters to go to and from work every day on the electric charge, saving the gas engine for longer trips that exceed the distance the car can go on electricity alone.
But why let reality get in the way? ObamaMotors has made a commitment to an all-electric plug-in green vehicle and no amount of common sense could possibly dissuade them. Obama Motors plans to produce 60,000 vehicles annually presumably hoping that government will purchase these overpriced vehicles for its own fleet. The Volt is not the jolt of business electricity that is going to turn Obama Motors green technology into “green” cash.
The rationale most often heard is that Volt would be a learning experience that can be used for future commercially viable plug-in electric vehicles. Since the taxpayers have already forked-over $13.4 billion in loans to the former GM, one wonders how much additional money taxpayers will be willing to donate for the opportunity to learn how to make an uneconomical green car. Some day a car company will have the battery technology to make an economically viable all electric plug-in but not today and certainly not a government run company such as Obama Motors. But, it is instructive to analyze what a $40,000 purchase from Obama Motors will get you as opposed to a less expensive proven plug-in Prius.
Unlike the classic Toyota Prius where the electric motor is essentially a back-up engine to the main gasoline engine, the Volt, is designed to go 40 miles solely on electric power. After the Volt’s battery is exhausted, a small gasoline engine on board recharges the battery to power the wheels. Because 80 percent of U.S. motorists travel less than 40 miles on an average day, they should rarely have to start up their gas engines. The battery is charged at an ordinary household outlet, hence, plug-in. Voila, zero emissions from the Volt.
One little fly in the ointment - Coal-fired plants produce approximately 50% of the electricity in the United States and 82% of power generated carbon dioxide emissions. If electric vehicles are charged exclusively by coal-fired electricity they produce more greenhouse gases than a traditional gasoline-powered combustion engine car.
As noted previously, the technologically less ambitious but eminently more practical 100 mile per gallon plug-in Prius will allow the vehicle to operate solely on its electric motor for ranges of up to 40 miles on a single charge. The gasoline engine then becomes the supplemental one for when the car needs to travel farther. This is the reverse of the original 50-mile per gallon Prius that relied primarily on the gasoline engine. The plug-in Prius differs from the Volt in two important ways, the Lithium ion battery is smaller and less is demanded of it and the gasoline engine powers the car when needed, it is not just a supplemental engine to generate electricity for the battery.
A single component will make or break the Chevrolet Volt “extended-range electric vehicle“-and with it, the fate of America’s national car company, Obama Motors: its battery. Lithium-cobalt oxide batteries power most consumer products but would not be safe for use in an automotive application. Obama Motors has chosen the LG Chem, Ltd. battery cells to power the Chevrolet Volt.
LG Chem claims to offer safer chemistry, specifically a manganese-based cathode chemistry with additives to improve its lifespan under high-temperature conditions. Secondly, it asserts that it has Proprietary Safety Reinforced Separator (SRSTM) coated with ceramics - the semi-permeable insulating membranes separating the electrodes in the cells. They are mechanically and thermally far superior to commonly used separators in lithium-ion cells thanks to the ceramic coatings. This unique technology further enhances the significant abuse tolerance capability already provided by the manganese base used in LG Chem cells. LG Chem is the only lithium-ion battery manufacturer to provide this dual protection against thermal runaways that can result from abuse conditions such as internal shorts, extreme overcharge, etc.
Additionally LG claims that they have a thermally efficient and safer laminated package - designed to be more forgiving than a metal cylinder under abuse conditions and not lead to explosions. The thermal efficiency of this package helps reduce the cost and complexity of the battery cooling system.
This all goes to prove that the battery operates well in “laboratory conditions.” But how will it operate year after year in the cold Minnesota winter and the hot Arizona summer? Obviously, no one can answer that question with any degree of certainty. Having spent a lifetime in research the only thing I can say with certainty is that the “laboratory” never mirrors the real world. Based on this “laboratory” data, Obama Motors “believes” that this new $10,000-plus Lithium ion battery will have a 10-year or 150,000 mile lifespan. I guess those of us with a more scientific and less messianic view of the world have our doubts that a lithium ion battery is going to propel a passenger car 40 miles on a charge, and do so over a 10-year lifespan under real world conditions.
The ultimate choice will be up to the American consumer. You can pay $40,000 for an unproven Chevrolet Volt or you can pay less for a 100 mile per gallon plug-in Prius with a dozen years of practical on road experience under its “hood”. If I were making an investment decision, I would go with Toyota Motors over Obama Motors.
P.S.
Watch out ObamaMotors here comes Ford. The Ford Escape Plug-in is coming in 2012. The reason it’s taking longer to come to market is that plug-in hybrid technology is more sophisticated and tougher to execute. Unlike full electric vehicles (e.g. Volt), it relies on two power sources at one time to power the wheels. And unlike today’s regular hybrids, the computers have to be smart enough to make good use of the extra plug-in electricity to deliver maximum efficiency.
Two things wrong here. First, the engine in the Volt is never used to charge the battery. The engine is used to generate electricity for the motor, not the battery. Second, it dosen’t matter that the car uses coal generated electricity because the process is so much more efficient than using a gas engine that only a small fraction of CO2 is generated.
April 5th, 2009 at 4:04 pm
Most hybrid cars are still way more than their ordinary counterparts. If they were comparable to non hybrid models I think more people would purchase them. And this in turn would bring down the price of making electric and hybrid vehicles. The more hybrid vehicles that are purchased the better the technology can become. But for now electric cars are just about impossible to buy and hybrids usually a lot cost more.
April 5th, 2009 at 4:13 pm
Gale, maybe i don’t understand your comment but electrical motors cannot store electrical energy that is the role of the LG lithium-manganese battery - the energy is then used it to power the electrical engine.
April 5th, 2009 at 4:34 pm
All i know is last years high gas prices will be back someday and maybe soon. I am looking to buy another car after. we have had a 95 BMW 530 since new. Time for a new one, I hate buying gas and food. But do like buying american and bringing outsourced jobs back to the US.
I really want the VOLT to work, and operate well enough for me to buy one. That means it has to be top notch in fuel use, looks and comfort.
I hope GM pulls this off, and we slow down buying oil overseas as soon as possible.
April 7th, 2009 at 8:38 am
Dear Regular Person, There will be fuel efficient 100-mile/gallon electric hybrid cars in the near future but unfortunately, they will be made by more innovative companies, such as Toyota and Honda and not GM. We need a more product-quality oriented management system, if we are to compete in the 21st century. Creative engineers should dominate not financial engineers!
April 7th, 2009 at 8:56 am
I guess we will find out, And i hope you are wrong.
Thanks for the response.
CF
April 7th, 2009 at 11:10 am
If you are looking for an electric car look at what Chrysler is doing.
April 7th, 2009 at 2:41 pm
I should point out that the actual cost ($40,000) is inclusive of the money that GM is spemding on supporting the failing car lines, particularly the SUV and trucks which are rattle traps at best these days. Also, GM had the first commercially viable electic car which ran fo multiple years in the 90’s and GM is refusing to use that technology to dig themselves out only because of arrogance. Finally the amount of money being paid to the union workers is cosing the company billions of dollars a year that could be use to pay me (a taxpayer) back. Additionally the actual cost of the chevy volt, if all of these things were fixed, would be about $15,000-$25,000 because they already have the palns from the EV1 and they are producing tomany large engines without a profit margin. GM is the result of an ego problem. That is where the US is headed.
April 7th, 2009 at 3:55 pm
There are a few errors in the original post. If the blog’s assertion that the plug-in Prius will have a 40-mile electric range (same as the Volt) is correct, then the following are true:
1. Coal-fired CO2 emissions will be essentially the same if both cars have the same all-electric range.
2. The plug-in Prius will cost a lot more than a conventional Prius, so the cost difference between it and the Volt will not be a big issue. Both of them have to absorb the cost of a big, expensive battery pack that can power a car for 40 miles. The blogger seems to assume that the plug-in Prius will cost the same as a current Prius — not possible.
3. Both of those big battery packs will be equally “unproven”. The current Prius uses nickel-metal-hydride batteries; the plug-in Prius will have to use Lithium-ion batteries (the same as the Volt) — so both cars’ battery systems will be equally unproven.
If the plug-in Prius actually offers 40-mile all-electric range, then there is very little difference between it and the Volt. The plug-in Prius will also necessarily include “unproven” powertrain components.
(If the plug-in Prius will actually have a smaller battery and smaller electric range, then it will offer only SOME of the Volt’s petroleum reduction, local air-pollution reduction, and CO2 reduction — for SOME of the cost differential. Aside from GM’s union/health-care cost issues, both cars will have similar intrinsic costs if they have similar battery-powered ranges and performance. You get what you pay for in batteries and electric motors.)
If both cars have a battery-operated range of 40 miles, then they will have similar sized batteries, not counting differences in vehicle weight or designed performance. (If the Volt is designed to blow off a plug-in Prius at a traffic light, then yes, it may have a bigger battery. Otherwise, pretty much the same.)
Although GM is (strangely, to my mind) avoiding the term “hybrid” when discussing the Volt, that’s exactly what it is. The Volt is what’s called a “series” hybrid — all energy, whether from the battery or gasoline engine, is routed through the electric motor, which is the full-time mechanical drive component. The current Prius drivetrain is a modified version of a “parallel” hybrid, where mechanical power can either come from an electric motor OR from a direct mechanical connection to the gasoline engine (or both).
That’s also where the need for “unproven” technology will come in for the plug-in Prius. The current electric-drive system is not designed to move a Prius at highway speeds for extended periods of time. (I’m not sure it can reach highway speeds at all.) The electric motor and the power electronics unit are under load only intermittently. The plug-in Prius will need to have NEW (i.e. “unproven” by the author’s definition), beefed-up motors and power electronics. It will also have to have a very different and much larger battery than the current Prius.
If the batteries are of similar capacity (enough to drive 40 miles), then the battery packs will cost about the same in both the plug-in Prius and the Volt — so the plug-in Prius will be considerably more expensive than the current Prius, and the price differential that the author talks about will largely disappear. (If either company wants to make their car cheaper, they can easily cut the battery size in half and offer just a 20-mile all-electric range, with half of the associated benefits.)
The “coal-fired electricity” issue is also the same with both vehicles if they have similar 40-mile electric-powered ranges. It takes a certain amount of energy to drive 40 miles using an electric motor; that energy represents some number of kWh that have to be pulled from the electric grid and stored in the battery. If the batteries store the same amount of energy, they use the same amount of “coal”.
But the coal-fired issue is a bit of a red herring. While CO2 emissions might be detrimental if either car is plugged into an all-coal electric supply, in most of the country the supply is a MIX, and the efficiency of the overall system leads to a net reduction in CO2 emissions. It also leads to a BIG reduction in local air pollution in congested urban areas. And lastly, those who are willing to pay for a “greener” technology like plug-in hybrids may also choose to pay a bit extra to purchase part of their home electric supply from renewable sources. “Green power” is an option for electric consumers in many parts of the country.
April 9th, 2009 at 10:39 am
Great reply Steer,
I just wanted to mention that the Volt will use none of the technology of the EV-1. This actually is a good thing. The Volt is a completely new vehicle with better aerodynamics then the Prius. It also just looks better I think. Too bad on the price though 35 to 40 thousand is out of my price range but if it is sucessful then maybe it will drop.
Also I’m so tired of hereing how an all electric vehicle (or partial in this case) will produce more CO2 emmisions because the electricity it uses is provided by a coal fired power plant. This is simply not true. Modern cars are very clean but the dynamic eviroment they are operated in causes them to emit more C02 during hard driving or hill climbing or just cold mornings. A coal fired power plant only emits CO2 directly in relation to demand. When the car is charging it is using energy at a very steady rate. Don’t forget about tommorow. Just because we produce most of our energy with fossil fuels now doesn’t mean we will in the near future, so getting the ground work laid out now to convert to electric vehcles sounds like a good idea to me.
April 9th, 2009 at 12:31 pm
Randy,
1. I agree the CO2 emissions will be the same. Coal-fired plants in the U.S. are the Achilles heel of all electric-drive technology. In a previous post, “Plug-In Cars Require a Nuclear Engine” http://www.cincinnatusblog.com/plug-in-cars/, I discussed this problem in detail. Only one industrial country has significantly reduced its carbon footprint, nuclear France. In the United States we emit over 24 metric tons of carbon dioxide per person; in France they emit a little over 6 metric tons per person.
2. I also agree the plug-in Prius will be more expensive than the current model but the power-train technology has been proven with 1 million cars on the road. There challenge is to switch from making the electric motor a primary motor rather than the secondary motor.
3. Toyota has announced that its 2010 models will have lithium ion batteries http://www.edmunds.com/insideline/do/Features/articleId=126123. If GM and Toyota’s releases are to be believed the major difference will be that the Volt will be driven exclusively by its electric engine with the small gas engine to be used only to keep the battery and the electric engine going past the 40 mile charge. The plug-in Prius gas engine is theoretically capable of powering the hybrid on its own after the 40 mile limit is reached. Time will tell. But if the past is a harbinger of the future my money is on Toyota.
April 9th, 2009 at 12:46 pm
Hello,
We are trying to have models ready to sell this Fall 2009.
We are trying to have a two seater that meets US DOT
rules for under $5,800
http://www.electriccarvillage.com
April 10th, 2009 at 4:41 am
I really don’t understand the argument that electric cars would actually INCREASE carbon emissions. I always thought we drove cars, not power plants. Where would the additional emissions come from? It’s true electric cars won’t clean up the grid, but the cars themselves don’t emit anything. People could also charge their vehicles at night, when the demand for power is usually much lower than at the height of the day.How can that not be an improvement over what happens with ICE cars ON THE ROAD?
Put it another way; if I owned solar panels on my home and didn’t have acess to an electric vehicle, how could i make my driving as clean as possible? if i then bought an EV, would i also be producing more CO2 when i drove it?
April 10th, 2009 at 10:28 am
The power to charge the battery has to com from somewhere, unfortunately solar accounts for only one-tenth of one percent of our electricity while coal accounts for over 50%. Coal is much dirtier than gasoline. Since we are stuck for the moment with fossil fuels, the key to producing less carbon dioxide emissions s is to use the fuel with the lowest carbon to hydrogen ratio. Coal is the least desirable because there are roughly 2 carbons for each hydrogen; oil is cleaner because it has the inverse ratio of approximately one carbon for 2 hydrogen molecules; and best of all is methane (CH4), with 4 hydrogen molecules for each carbon molecule. In the strange calculus of clean technology a natural gas car could actually be cleaner than an electric car.
April 10th, 2009 at 11:18 am
When cell phones first came out few wanted them, a portalble came in a bag you slipped over your shoulder, they were expensive, you could only talk for 10 minutes they they had to be recharged. When flat screen TV’s first came out few people wanted them, the picture was not that great and they cost 10,000 dollars. If we had waited for the technology to be perfect we would still be using pay phones and CRT TV’s. The technology has to start sometime. Oh by the way if it had not been for goverment pressure cars would still not have seat belts or air bags.
April 11th, 2009 at 8:39 am
Dave,
I agree with you, there will be plug-in electric cars in our future. But the name plate will Toyota, Honda, BMW etc.,and not GM or Chrysler. It is one thing for government to promulgate regulations but that does not give them the competence to actually run a car company.
April 11th, 2009 at 9:13 am
I can only agree and second all the replies of William!
AMERICA has too many snags in place regulating this resarch and development..
We have the technoligies but, we in this will be late in producing the better outcome with finished products.
During the initial surge of electronics [1950's],American technology was the source and the catalyst of the ‘cheap’ mass assembly lines and sweat factories in various unregulated Asian mass workforces, and I also add cheaper, unregulated labor forces. WE ARE AMERICAN, and NORTH AMERICA will lead in this field eventually! SO BE IT!!
April 13th, 2009 at 12:52 pm
Back in 1980 I studied solar technology & alternatives.The golden rule is the investment payback. Today everybody and there uncle going for green electric /hybrid cars. The first thing the country should do go fully nuclear power plant , until the alternatve (wind & solar ?)energy catching up 50 plus years. In order to cut back on emission need to looked the improved blue Diesel engine ,This engine could be installed in the Hybrid or direct with multi fuel.
The economic cars could be $12-20.000 . The very interesting thing is when VW come out with the second generation BUG.
the company was debating on the power train , to be a Hybrid or conventional drive. Today VW is very quiet wonder why. I feel the electric car race going to turn into a Diesel /Hybrid race. Also 50 years from now people will be driving nuclear vehicles.
Ford was ahead its time with the design. but will see.(of course not me.)
April 14th, 2009 at 7:17 am
just a comment: none of us are old enough to remember but in the 1920’s electric vehicles far outnumbered any other type
( except possibly horsedrawn). If we had never gone over to the ‘dark side’ in the first place we wouldn’t be scrambling to get our co2 levels back down to 350ppm or below so this whole D___ planet dosn’t just kick on us. Just a thought.
April 21st, 2009 at 5:25 pm
Back in the mid-1980’s, my parents bought a brand new Chrystler Fifth Avenue. Back then, they were nice cars. It was the dealer’s car that he had fine-tuned to get the best gas mileage possible. It had an eight-cylinder engine and was a pretty big boat-like car equipped with all the bells and whisles. It got 35 miles per gallon on the highway. How is it that we can’t seem to make even a tiny, lightweight vehicle that runs partially off electricity, like the Prius, to get more than 40 miles per gallon?
Something doesn’t add up, Scooter! Me thinks someone has their greedy paws in the cookie jar again and thinks nobody is noticing!
April 24th, 2009 at 10:56 am
Loved it, thanks.
May 12th, 2009 at 4:44 pm
Excellent blog with lots of useful information on alternative fuels. Are there any forums that you recommend I join?
June 12th, 2009 at 6:09 am
All these silly electric cars and electric gas hybrids will cause the price of gas to rise based on simple economics. In 1976 gas was around 50 cents per gallon. The average fill up was 30 gallons, this is $15.00. Today with high mileage cars we buy less fuel per fill up and go longer between fill ups. We pay $2.50 per gallon for 10 gallons or 25.00. The higher mileage and lower amounts combine to make our out of pocket costs even higher. Why is this? The cost of delivering the product to you is one part and the profit to the station owner is another. When we progress to the 100 MPG hybrids and the all electric cars the price of a gallon of gas will be over $10.00. You’ll buy 2 and 1 half gallons and you’ll pay $25.00 for it. Profits will be one factor but the other is the federal state and local tax revenue derived from the sale of gas. Government rarely wants to do with less so these taxes will surely rise.
June 24th, 2009 at 12:18 am