GM’s Plug-In Prototype to Show in 2007
by Jacob Gordon, Nashville, TN 
on 11.11.06
Everyone wonders who will come out with the first plug-in hybrid. I imagine most of us assume it will be Toyota, but I would love to be wrong. General Motors is now saying that it will unveil a plug-in hybrid prototype at the International Auto Show in Detroit in early 2007. Not many details to report at this point (don’t’ worry, the above image is of the Hy Wire), but the word from the blogosphere (and the LA Times) is that the GM plug-in drive train will differ from the way plug-ins are typically configured. According to reports, a charge from a conventional outlet will power the car’s lithium-ion batteries which will give the car 20-30 miles of pure electric range (great for local commuting). When the batteries are depleted, a gasoline or diesel motor will kick in to charge the battery. Prototype and hacked plug-ins have thus far have used to backup internal combustion engine to actually turn the wheels, rather than recharge the battery. Presumably, GM’s approach is a more efficient use of the fuel and would most likely negate the need for a transmission and otherwise simplify the drive train.
While there’s been a great deal of interest in plug-in hybrids, automakers aren’t quite clamoring to put them on the market. Toyota has expressed interest, as has Ford, and Daimler-Chrysler is testing plug-in systems in their Sprinter vans. Google has ambitions for an ethanol plug-in, and such unlikely characters as James Woolsey, former chief of the CIA, has become a proponent. Most vocal in the call for plug-ins have been independent groups like CalCars and Plug-In America. See TreeHugger TV’s coverage of the Maker Faire, at which Cal Cars did an onsite plug-in conversion, and our in-depth interview with Paul Scott of Plug In America, one of the EV1’s early defenders.
GM has been chided for their sluggishness to make efficient cars as well as, of course, their “killing” of the EV1. They’ve put a great deal of emphasis on their ethanol vehicles as well as fuel-cell concept cars like the Hy Wire, and the Equinox, which will begin road tests with real drivers next year. It would be inspiring, though unlikely, to see an American company bring the first plug-in to the market. :: The LA Times via Hugg (google)
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The definition of plug-in hybrid readily admits a non-ICE engine option for the ran-out-of-juice recharge phase of the vehicle's propulsion. The fuel cell could be the smallish direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC), or the direct ethanol fuel cell (EMFC). THese need no on-board fuel reformation and NO hydrogen storage.
That headline is deceptive. Makes it sound like GM will be selling a PHEV in '07, instead of putting out just another useless show car.
I think I expect Toyota to be the first large auto manufacturer to actually sell a plug-in hybrid, though not necessarily the first to show a prototype (especially since there are plug-in hybrids already out there in small quantities). This is just like GM showing the fuel-cell car a little while back - that's great, but when can I buy one?
Mike
Ok, I'm confused.
What is so great about a plug in hybrid? Isn't this just switching from oil to coal power (if you get your electricity generated from a coal powered plant?) If this is the case, isn't this actually worse in terms of carbon emissions?
svetlana -
I'll give you my $0.02:
1. Fewer sources: there's a lot fewer power plants than there are cars by several orders of magnitude, so improving emissions source becomes a bounded problem.
2. Electricity: Once the power supply for the car is electric, it doesn't need to be supplied by coal. As soon as a new wind farm goes up in your area, the plug-in's effective emissions get better. Same with putting solar panels on your house's roof (or the car's, for that matter). This effectively argues that your car can now use renewable energy sources.
3. Battery: The larger the battery, the more regenerative breaking can capture when the car comes to a halt. In the current hybrids, if you break lightly, you charge the battery. If you break hard, mechanical breaks kick in because the battery can't take the power coming in. Plug-in cars should be able to recover more power.
4. If you're a member of the peak oil crowd, it's a Good Thing (TM) to get off oil now instead of later. Coal isn't a good destination, but see #2 above.
5. General Efficiency: I've heard arguments that the Fuel->Power Plant->Transmission Line->Car energy path is more efficient than the Oil->Gas->Distribution->Car path, but I can't find any quick references. If anyone knows, please post.
That's what I have off the top of my head. Off to dinner!
Mike
So if you're driving with electricity instead of gas, you are using a power source that is far more versatile. How much you pollute will depend on what source you a using. So yes, switching to electric if it's 100% powered is bad but the idea (and reality) is that we're getting our electricity from a diversity of sources, instead of relying on the oil megacorporations. In my opinion coal is better than oil anyway because we have so much of it here and dont have to invade other countries to get sufficient supplies of it.
2 good things about plug-ins:
1. The primary source of the CO2 is reduced to a limited number of locations, which means you can change out the technology at a future date (perhaps renewable, fission, or fusion) much more easily than getting millions of people to buy new cars.
2. Plug-ins reduce certain nations' dependencies on imported oil, which means their foreign policy can be less agressive and more consistent.
This on board gas powered battery charging scheme is the future of hybrids, and is what most experts say should be the next step in the transition to electric vehicles (which include fuels cells).
Gas engines are most efficient and cllean burning when they can run at a steady load and rpm, like in a generator application like this. Because it delivers average power, not peak power, it can be a rather tiny gas engine (i.e. 12 to 20 hp) which in turn would be extremely compact. The variations of load, throttle openings and engine speed that regular car engine has are a hellish engineering challenge, and a car engine has to be sized for peak power to accelerate, so the engine is extremely oversized than what is needed for steady state cruising, or for averaged power requirements.
This is really just an electric car with a gas generator that kicks in when the battery starts to get low, so the car's batteries will never run out (assuming it has gas in the car).
Most of the time the generator would never kick in because the batteries have enough range for normal driving, assuming the car would be plugged in at night. If not, no problem, the tiny gas generator would kick in when it senses the charge is dropping below a certain point.
And because this is mostly an electric car with the addition of a tiny gas engine generator, GM can at long last benefit from its engineering work done on the EV-1!
The downside is that the batteries for this type of technology have to large and robust, which is what has discouraged Toyota from going the plug in froute (that and a vastly uprated electric engine with a mean time betweeen failure high enough for Toyotas high standards). But then you have large, expensive batteries and uprated motor carrying around a big gas auto engine which is redundent most of the time, an ineffective compromise.
GM's proposed method is the next wave in many ways a much or optimal approach and compromise than anything we have seen before.
Interesting,
What is really being gained here? As I see it we are simply swapping from one energy source to another of equal damage to the environment. Given electricity is mostly carbon burned coal, how is this a benefit to the environment?
Solar concentrators which could be source of power from the home would be more suitable system in combination, but I see it as a promotional ploy more than a pollution solution.
Privacy-Rights-Act
Very logical technical approach. Makes me wonder how GM figured it out. At this point, I'm not sure how GM will screw it up. But I'm certain that it will.
Porsche came up with this (about 100 years ago!). Seriously Porsche had an electric car with the electric engines built within each wheel about 100 years ago.
Mitubishi has been testing prototypes of hybrid cars (exactly as described above)(with electric engines built into each wheel) with a gas generator to recharge the batteries, w/o any indication of if/when they'd release a car for sale with this set up.
It's not difficult to figure out why large automakers have not released a car like this. They all have hundreds of millions of dollars (if not billions) invested in the current tooling for making a normal (ICE) car.
Since it takes hundreds of millions to make a huge change like this, why would they? They want to make sure that they maximize their profits from the current system that they have in place.
Of course yes, everyone (consumers) would benifit by changing, but as long as no other major automaker makes a move, the others are safe to not make a move in this direction either!
Unless some government (Japanese, European or American) coughs up the dough to subsidize a drastic shift like this, I don't see it happening anytime soon.
Thanks for everyone insightful comments. I learned a lot. I was kinda wondering how having an engine charge a battery would be more efficient than having the engine run the wheels.
Thanks!
Eric
Would like to see a demo model.