GM Puts the Brakes on $370 Million Chevy Volt Engine Factory
by Michael Graham Richard, Ottawa, Canada 
on 12.18.08
Another Thorn in the Volt's Side
There's a lot of seismic activity in the car industry these days. Tesla Motors changed CEO and fire some people, Toyota stopped construction of a US Prius manufacturing plant, Norwegian electric car maker THINK is on the brink, as well as the NICE electric car company. And in the same week that we learned that BYD was bringing a plug-in hybrid to market years before the Chevy Volt, GM announces that it is suspending work on the 552,000 square foot Flint Engine Plant that will make the Volt's 1.4-liter engine. Read on for more details.
No Delays, We Promise!
GM says that this won't delay the Volt and that it will appear in showrooms at the end of 2010 as promised, but is that just pre-bailout reassurances? What does this mean for the Cruze, another GM model that will use that 1.4-liter engine? Hard to know for sure.
From the Detroit Free Press:
“It’s temporarily on hold as we assess our cash situation,” said GM spokeswoman Sharon Basel. “I don’t think it’s a surprise that we’re studying and reviewing everything given the position we’re in.”
Of course, GM is trying to survive in the short-term, so drastic measures are required. But the Volt is part of its long-term plan, so they should be careful about not delaying that project too much. BYD's already on track to sell a plug-in hybrid in the US in 2010, Fisker might diversify into more affordable plug-in cars, and other automakers are no doubt working on their own Volt-like vehicles. A big part of what made the Volt notable is that it is ahead of the curve. If it becomes just another plug-in hybrid, the benefits to GM will be much smaller.
Via Detroit Free Press, Associated Press, Reuters
Plug-in Hybrid Cars
Mercedes Unveils BlueZERO Trio of Electric Concept Cars
GM is Weeping: BYD F3DM Plug-in Hybrid Goes On Sale in China, 3 Years Before Volt
Fisker Opens Engineering Center Near Detroit
Fisker Raises $65 Million for Karma Plug-In Hybrid Sports Car
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No engine factory, but there won't be any delays? were they so in advance with it that they can afford to delay it now? hard to believe.
It's that they already have the engines in production overseas
I still believe, sadly, that the Volt is more vapour-ware than reality and this news strengthens my view.
Talk about shooting yourself in the foot. The Volt is the one car they should be spending all their money to develop. Sell off and close everything else.
Its going to get great milage without an engine. Maybe they should just install pedals.
GM, by first eliminating street cars, then by resisting emissions regulations, then by conning people into buying gas guzzling SUVs have contributed more to environmental destruction than any other organization on the planet.
The way forward is to provide people with a variety of better transportation choices that have less environmental impact. This includes high-speed rail, rapid transit, cycling and walking as well as building communities that don't force people to walk and cycle.
Instead of wasting money bailing out the failed auto makers, it would be far better to provide loans to new, innovative companies that can provide transportation solutions for the future. Funding should also be provided to help transition auto workers to new jobs.
The world marches on. By desperately hanging on to sunset industries, we will far even further behind other countries.
Didn't they already build an electric vehicle? ;-)
Who has shuttered more factories of late than GM and the other domestic auto manufacturers? And now they say they need to build a new plant to build the engine. What happened to the factory and workers who made the engine for the Chevy SS454 pickup truck or other out of production vehicles? Did they tear those factories down and kill all of the assembly line workers to prevent them from drawing unemployment? I say use an existing building and free laborers, you know: the union guys in the job bank drawing a salary for not doing anything at all.
Quit begging for our money whilst throwing away more than most regular people will make in a lifetime.
Mark,
I don't think that you understand. A manufacturing factory is much more than a bare floor with tables and chairs. For the most part its tools and by tools I mean huge machines that are built in/part of the building. The same factory most likely can’t be used to build huge V-8 engines as inline 4 engines without retooling, that means essentially gutting the building and starting over, the walls and roof are just a drop in the bucket cost wise and construction time wise compared to the tools needed to assemble the gismo that’s being made. The V-8 will live again, perhaps not in the numbers that there were before but it will live again, it doesn’t make since to spend millions rebuilding a manufacturing facility for something that will likely be used in another year or two, they’d be better off building a new facility on an older site or switching their current manufacturing for the 1.4 L engine from 1 shift to 2 shifts or 2 shifts to 3 shifts until the time is right to build a larger facility for that engine.
This is only the beginning of the problems with the Chevy Volt. GM overpromised an incredible amount with this vehicle.
The Volt is a desperate attempt to catch up with companies like Toyota and Honda. But it is not going to work. Battery vehicles simply have too many problems.
For more details about the problems with the Chevy Volt, click on the following link:
http://hydrogendiscoveries.wordpress.com/2008/12/01/must-read-article-about-the-chevy-volt-that-tells-the-real-story-gm-is-over-promising-in-a-major-way-beyond-the-sound-bites/
The ironic part is that the Chevy Equinox hydrogen fuel cell vehicle is actually much further ahead in development than the Chevy Volt.
But plug-in battery vehicles are the flavor of the month, so GM makes the Volt the focus of their marketing/bailout plan.
Toyota started their in-house hydrogen fuel cell program back in 1992 and the first Prius which uses batteries came to market back in 1997. And Toyota company sold the RAV4 EV and only about 300 were purchased per year!
Therefore, Toyota knows all about battery and hydrogen fuel cell technology. And the company is aggressively pursuing hydrogen fuel cell vehicles.
Honda is also aggressively pursuing hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. Furthermore, Honda is not even pursuing plug-in battery vehicles! That says a lot about the technology.
Greg Blencoe
Chief Executive Officer
Hydrogen Discoveries, Inc.
Maybe - hopefully - they'll either refit a factory already making inline 4s (i read above post - there must be some modularity though), or higher a subcontractor to make them or their parts. I mean whats an ICE engine really manufacturing wise?
And yeah, truth is they probably have an overseas factory that already makes a similar motor.
Do you really need a 1.4l engine to charge a bunch of batteries. My Ford Festiva has a much smaller engine and pushes the vehicle at 40+mpg. To charge batteries with an engine running at its sweet spot shouldn't need 1.4l. Maybe they have realized they can just stuff a Honda generator under the hood and acheive the same thing?
"Do you really need a 1.4l engine to charge a bunch of batteries. My Ford Festiva has a much smaller engine and pushes the vehicle at 40+mpg. To charge batteries with an engine running at its sweet spot shouldn't need 1.4l."
It doesn't require one that large, which is why it makes me wonder if Honda or Suzuki has a large advantage as they could use a 600cc-1000cc motorcycle engine detuned for longer service life and achieve a lighter vehicle with more room for batteries.
One issue is that motorcycle engines typically run at high rpm which is louder and results in shorter engine life, but not an insurmountable obstacle. The integrated transmission is another issue, but again could reuse most of the existing technology and tooling.
i think its just another nail in the coffin for GM, to little to late