Is This Our Future? - 24 volt lifepo4 battery pack

Joe NoceraJUNE 25,2011 when I realized that driving a new Chevrolet Volt was fundamentally a new experience, I didn't turn it on for the first time and go around the block.
Yes, this is a whisper.
Quiet by 16-kilowatt-hour, 400-
But it still feels like a "normal" car.
Not when I was driving about 100 miles from Manhattan to Southampton. Y. , either.
Although the battery range is only about 40 miles, the car continues to drive even if the battery is dead;
It just switched to its gasoline engine and I barely noticed it in such a seamless transition.
That night I arrived at Southampton and plugged a special wire into the garage's power outlet to charge the battery overnight.
No, what makes this experience different?
What brings me to the idea that Volt could change how we think about gasoline consumption?
It's what happened later.
You know the story of Volt, right?
As GM enters the race to build a viable electric vehicle --
All competitions included-
Electric Nissan Leaf, a row of Ford cars at different stages of development, and electric cars that Tesla is about to start selling --
This is likely to be the most hyped American car since Lee ecocca launched the Chrysler minivan.
From four years ago, with the support of legendary auto executive Bob Lutz, the Volt project was in G. M.
The company went bankrupt and became a symbol of the Great, shiny hope that American automakers could achieve.
It was claimed to be so.
Cars like Leaf and original Tesla
A sports car for over $100,000
Pure electric vehicles are completely powered by batteries.
Classic hybrids like Toyota Prius use batteries as an add-on
In order to improve the fuel mileage of the internal combustion engine.
However, the design of Volt is different.
As long as the battery has electricity, the car is like an electric car.
The internal combustion engine takes over when the battery runs out and it becomes an old-fashioned gas-consuming car.
Once you charge the battery, the electricity will take over again.
The experience of driving it is consistent with the way we use cars.
For example, there is no need to plan ahead before we charge to make sure the car doesn't run out of battery life.
The gas engine removes most people's fear of electric cars from "distance anxiety ". Indeed, G. M.
I like to call Volt a "remote vehicle ".
"The Bible for car enthusiasts, car trends, is so impressive that it named Volt 2011 cars this year.
Volt went public in last December.
But because Chevrolet was very cautious when it launched the car
So far, only dealers in seven states have received cars and sold less than 2,500 vehicles.
It sometimes looks like the most advertised invisible car in the world.
Plans for a bigger promotion next year.
That's why I asked G. M.
If I could test-
Drive past the Memorial Day holiday.
I want to see for myself what's going on with these fuss.
After four days of advertising, I drove it around town and used it to buy groceries and take it to visit friends.
Sometimes, when I walk out of the store, someone will stand next to "my" Volt and want to ask me some questions about it.
Although I am not a car expert, I am pleasantly surprised by the power, pickup and handling of the car.
"People think it will be a dorkmobile," said Mr.
Lutz retired last year.
"But it's fun to drive.
"What I really get, though, is: on the dashboard, in addition to the meter that measures the battery life, the Volt has another meter to calculate the mileage of the vehicle per gallon. During the two-
Driving to Southampton for an hour, I used two gallons of gas, a quarterly tank.
So when I drive into the driveway, I drive 50 miles per gallon.
The next day, I did not use any gas after charging all night.
After about 30 miles in the morning, when I was hanging out in the house, I charged it for a few hours.
(It takes 10 hours to fully recharge unless you buy a special 240-
V charging device.
) This gave the battery 10 miles, enough for me to use the battery power alone that night to where I needed to go.
Before I knew it, I had reached 80 miles per gallon.
By the next day, it had exceeded 100.
I soon found myself obsessed with increasing miles per gallon.
Avoid buying more gas.
I charge it whenever I go home on a business trip, even for a few hours, just to walk a few more miles.
I actually control how much gas I consume, which is a powerful feeling.
When I returned the car to GM, I had already driven 300 miles and I didn't use another drop of gas other than the original two gallons.
I'm not the kind of person you call the Sierra Club, but I have to tell you: I'm proud of myself.
When I began to describe it for Mr.
He said with a smile that Lutz was the psychological effect of volts on me.
"Yeah," he said, "it's like playing video games, constantly giving you back your score.
"People who focus on the automotive industry like to say that this special moment in the history of automotive is the industry we saw closest to a century ago.
At that time, dozens of car companies were trying to power cars in different ways.
Power internal combustion engine.
There is a good reason: nothing else can provide more power more effectively.
Now, the game is going on to come up with an affordable, massive
Electric cars in the market.
Everyone in the game has different theories about how to do it.
Elon Musk of PayPal
The founder of the driving force behind Tesla, tied together with nearly 7,000 lithium-ion batteries, built his original sports car --
Laptop Battery
This consumes most of the quality of the car. (It’s a two-
Part of it is because there is no room for anything but batteries.
) Although his sports car will never become popularmarket car —
In fact, to support Tesla's new Model S sedan, it is phasing out --Mr.
Musk claimed victory because he said the car had more than 100 miles, providing a "proof of concept" that electric cars can travel long distances between charging ".
The S-car starts at $57,400, about half the price of the original sports car.
Nissan's dazzling chief executive, Carlos Ghosn, made another bet on the chip --
Billions of them.
On the $32,780 Leaf, there's a 24-kilowatt-
An hour battery pack that can charge 73 miles. Mr.
It is said that Ghosn believes that distance anxiety is excessive, and once people get used to electric cars, it will not be a problem for every 73 miles they charge.
Well, maybe in Europe and Japan, but most of the analysts I 've interviewed think that in the US, he might give his head to him, and I tend to agree.
Lindsay Brook, senior editor of Automotive Engineering International, said: "We have the gasoline advantage of 120 . ".
"The habits and expectations that have been generated --
How far can this car go?
How fast can you cheer? —
Will not leave overnight.
"Americans like the idea that they can sit in their cars and drive around the country --
Even if they never really did that.
In addition, no one knows what kind of infrastructure electric vehicles will develop.
Is lithium ion ultimately the right battery chemical?
How fast will the cost of the battery be-
This is the most expensive feature in electric vehicles. come down?
When will the battery size shrink and the power increase?
One of the reasons there are so many experiments right now is that no one knows how it all goes.
Before some answers begin to emerge, it is unlikely that any electric vehicle will be recognized by the public.
Early adopters may be willing to give electric cars a chance, but the rest of us won't.
Most people want to push mature technology instead of rollingof-the-dice bets.
That's why Volt is such an attractive choice.
"The answer is right now," said Michelle Krebs, a senior analyst at the car website edmunds. com.
It allows people to experience electric cars without sacrificing anything we expect in gasolinepowered car.
In fact, Volt's work is a direct by-product of G. M.
Its original electric car legend EV1's frustrating experience, it has more or less the same range as the leaves.
Between 1996 and 1999. M.
Rental of 800 ev1, but in the face of increasing costs, they were taken back at the end of production.
Chris Payne directed a G. M.
The decision to kill EV1 is called "Who Killed the Electric Car?
"This is due to the bad faith of the car maker, but G. M.
I have always believed that anxiety is the real culprit.
"People just don't want to make the compromises you have to make," said Andrew Farah, Volt's chief engineer, "starting with range. ”Mr.
Farah, who works on EV1, recalls that G. M.
Used to connect the rolling generator to the outside of the car so that the engineer can continue to use it even after the battery is dead;
This is at the heart of the idea behind Volt.
For his part, Sir.
Lutz has been insisting that the battery must be able to reach 40 miles per charge, and according to many studies, the vast majority of Americans drive 40 miles or less a day.
(The government has officially set Volt's battery life at 35 miles, but the conditions are right --
Warm weather, flat terrain
The range can reach 50 miles.
During the time I was driving the Volt, the battery life was always below 40 s.
This insistence has led to some inevitable compromises.
Since there is still an internal combustion engine, the battery cannot be placed under the hood. So G. M.
Had to remove the middle seat at the back for big T-
Molded battery with required voltage.
Its initially small body modeled on Camaro has to become more aerodynamic, as this is the only way to hit 40 milesper-charge mark.
Advertising and a car for the mass market are very expensive.
The retail price of Volt is about $41,000;
As far as I know, this is almost the cost of construction. G. M.
In other words, the profit for the first iteration of Volt is basically zero.
Although the current tax credit for electric vehicles is $7,500
The first tax incentive for mixed gas
Electric vehicles were launched during President George w. Bush's administration.
Bush, just in case you want to know.
It will not last forever.
Consumer Reports advise readers not to use Volt because it is too expensive. G. M.
It urgently needs battery technology to continuously improve so that it can reduce the cost of electric vehicles and start producing voltage
Like other vehicles of size and shape, including vans and cars. U. V.
This will attract families.
This is the only way it will eventually enter the mass market.
Still, driving it does make me believe in two things.
First, despite consumer reports, Volt has more chances of success than any other product on the market. Yes, G. M.
In recent years, the record of making cars people want is not encouraging.
But the company has gone through hell's pain, and many of the institutional hurdles that prevent it from producing good cars have now disappeared.
Although Volt has its disadvantages, it is undoubtedly a good car.
More importantly, as I found when driving, voltage makes sense for the economic and cultural moments we are in now.
It grabbed me mentally and I felt smug when I drove past the gas station, it implicitly encouraged me to use as much battery power as possible --
Other people will feel this way.
What surprised me a little is that I really felt the pain of the environment
I feel guilty when I return my car back to my gasguzzling ways. Mr.
Farah told me that Volt owners usually drive 1,000 miles or more before they need to buy gas. I believe it.
It has very high words. of-Mouth potential.
The second thing it convinced me about is that electric cars are no longer an environmental daydream.
I drove Tesla a few years ago and while it was a wonderful experience, its high price and limited utility didn't give me confidence that electric cars were ready for prime time.
Volt made me believe this.
At this moment of greatest uncertainty about how the future will evolve, Volt is comforting in the combination of new technologies and old technologies.
In the end, we will have a battery of 300 miles per charge and an infrastructure solution to replace the gas station. Eventually.
At the same time, we have the voltage. It’s a start.
The cover article of June 26 on the future of electric vehicles misdescribes the batteries of the Chevrolet Volt and Nissan Leaf.
Volt has a 16-kilowatt-
Not a 16-hour battery. kilowatt.
24 leaves-kilowatt-
Not a 24-hour battery pack. kilowatt.
The article also erroneously mentions the engine that won the Auto Innovation race a century ago.
Gasoline-
A power internal combustion engine, not a combustible engine.
Earlier versions of the relevant chart incorrectly state the power
Only the Toyota Prius series.
One mile, not 13. (A plug-
In the upcoming version next year, there will be 13-mile electric-only range.
) The chart also accurately mentions the charging time of the Nissan Leaf.
240-8 hours
Volt charger for 120-21 hoursvolt charger.
Finally, the chart omits the eligibility of the two tax credit models;
Like the Chevrolet Volt, Tesla sports cars and Nissan Leaf are also eligible for a $7,500 federal tax credit.
A version of this op
Ed was printed on page SR1 of The New York edition on June 26, 2011 with the title: Is this our future? .
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