General Motors is reportedly developing an all-new 55 kW max/30 kW continuous power inverter which will find its way into future hybrid and electric vehicles released by the company, including the next-generation Chevrolet Volt. The new inverter was announced by GM’s Sean Gleason at the Department of Energy’s Annual Merritt Review in June, where he revealed they are nearly two-thirds of the way finished the $16.6 million project.
Charged EVs says work on the new inverter began in October 2011 and will conclude in January 2016. It will produce 14.1 kW/kg of specific output with 94 percent efficiency. Gleason said the inverter will also bring the cost of electronics down to $3.30 per kilowatt for every 100,000 units produced, which is crucial if GM hopes to succeed in making the new Volt cheaper than the current car.
The inverter is modular and can be adapted into more than one vehicle application, not just the new Volt. GM worked with multiple suppliers on the project including Hitachi, Delphi, Infineon, HRL, Panasonic and more.
GM hopes to extend the all-electric range of the Volt to around 50 or 60 miles with the next-gen car. It may also increase the vehicle’s combined range by implementing a smaller gasoline generator, possibly the 1.0-liter three-cylinder unit currently employed by Opel in the Adam and the upcoming Corsa hatchback.
Comments
Does anyone here realize the significance of this?
If they can do this and continue to lower cost and increase range this is a Musk/Tesla killer combo. This would bring electric cars to the masses with out a lot of fuss and still help add to the development of full electric cars.
This could just save performance vehicles in the future as they can not live on as they are today for much longer. This is why the Supercars are all moving to these electric gas combinations.
Looking forward to to the day when water cooler conversation will be about not only how fast your car is from 0 to 60, but also how far you can drive on $1.20 per gallon grid fuel, when you want or need to.
That is never going to happen.
Cooler talk at least automotive is left more to the fun and impractical by human nature.
A guy will tell you how much HP he has but will never brag about how many air bags he has. Bu to be fair few people care.
Electric is not going to solve all the issues as we are now hurting for power plants too but if you can spread this around we will not all end up with Spark sized Impalas in the future.
I see future water cooler conversations as who gets the most EV range. You can read that already at the GM-Volt.com forum and at the Tesla forums. Talking about gas engine HP is more like talking about real horses: a thing of the past!
Automotive technology grows by small steps. This news means that future GM EVs will gain in range for the same battery capacity, similar to getting better MPG by improving the fuel injection system. The Volt as a EREV is a stepping stone, but if its EV range increases, future Volt owners will drive more EV miles and less with gas. As technology improves, we may be getting closer to the 200 mile EV range, which is the breakpoint for a mass conversion from ICE to EV.
The Volt and other range extended electric vehicles have a development advantage, in that they can benefit from multiple technological advances during one product development cycle. When one improvement is layered on top of another, it is like multiplying the advantages in terms of range, mileage and costs.