ausauto News Article

GM produce first battery pack but Volvo not sure where to put it!

Three years to the day after unveiling the Chevrolet Volt concept car, General Motors has started building the battery packs that will power the range-extended electric car, which the company says may cost less than expected.

The first of the thousands of 16-kilowatt-hour lithium-ion battery packs the General will need for the cars rolled off the assembly line today.

The packs, which use more than 200 cells apiece, are being assembled Detroit, making GM the first automaker to make lithium-ion packs in the United States.

The Volt is slated to roll off an assembly line in Detroit by the end of the year, and for the first time GM said the car might carry a sticker price less than the $40,000 everyone's expected it to cost.

General Motors, like every other automaker developing electric cars, refuses to disclose the cost of the pack, but most EV experts say lithium-ion packs run $500 to $1000 per kilowatt-hour.

The packs in the Volt are being manufactured at the Brownstown Battery Pack Assembly Plant in Brownstown Township outside Detroit where GM spent $43 million and five months retooling the plant.

Meanwhile, Volvo is still evaluating the viability of a C30 battery electric vehicle and hasn't decided where to put the batteries.

The electric motor is housed under the bonnet and one of the most likely the best places is the prop shaft tunnel where the fuel tank is normally located and within the car's optimised crumple zone.

Since the car runs solely on electricity, it requires a larger battery with higher capacity (24kWh) than in the case of a plug-in hybrid (12kWh).

The car has a lithium-ion battery that can be recharged when completely depleted within eight hours using a household power point.

The BEV is limited to a top speed of about 130km/h, accelerates from zero to 100km/h in about 11 seconds and has a range of up to 150km.