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GM BEV2 Vehicle Platform

The BEV2 vehicle architecture is a General Motors platform designed to underpin electric vehicles. The platform was engineered from the ground up to underpin electric cars.

Short for Battery Electric Vehicle 2 and sometimes spelled with Roman Numerals like BEVII, the platform made its debut with the 2017 Chevrolet Bolt EV, and underpins four other GM battery electric vehicles, including the Chevrolet Menlo EV, Chevrolet Bolt EUV, Buick Velite 6, and Buick Velite 7.

BEV 2 Platform Vitals
Production: 2017-Present
Driveline: Front-Mounted Electric Motor, Battery Under Floor, Front-Wheel-Drive
Class: Subcompact, Compact, Midsize, Full-Size
Vehicle Type: Car, Crossover
Predecessor: Gamma II (in Chevrolet Spark EV)
Successor: BEV3

General Motors Electric Vehicle Plans

Overview

It is believed that BEV II was designed to support electric vehicles of all shapes and sizes, from subcompacts like the Bolt EV to compact midsize, and even full-size cars. The flexible approach utilizes what is referred to as a “skateboard” design in engineering circles.

Notable components of the platform include:

  • Electric motor mounted in the front of the vehicle, under the “hood” of a conventional car
  • Battery placed under the floor of the vehicle
  • MacPherson strut suspension in the front and torsion-beam arrangement at the rear, though the latter could potentially be changed for other vehicle types
  • Front-wheel-drive configuration, though all-wheel-drive and rear-wheel-drive is theoretically possible
  • Flexible wheelbase configurations
  • Extensive use of high-strength steels

Development

GM initially started out developing the Bolt EV on the Gamma 2 platform, but as development progressed, engineers created a new platform now known as BEV2, which doesn’t share components with Gamma.

“There are no Bolt EV parts tied to the G2 architecture,” lead product engineer Josh Tavel was quoted as saying. In another interview, Tavel stated that the Bolt EV shares the liquid sound deadener with other Gamma platform vehicles.

Interestingly, the Bolt is assigned the G2UC-E internal program code, which decrypts as:

Though the program code indicates that the Bolt uses the G2 platform, the discrepancy is explained by the fact that the Bolt EV program originated on the Gamma architecture, but then evolved to create its own platform, even as the vehicle program maintained the G2UC-E code.

Technical Details

In the 2017-2019 Bolt EV, the BEV 2 platform features the 60 kWh lithium-ion battery/rechargeable battery system and an electric drive unit that makes 200 horsepower (150 kW) and 266 pound-feet of torque (360 N-m). For the 2020 model year, an improvement in battery chemistry bumped the battery to 66 kWh, delivering a 21-mile increase in driving range to 259 miles on a single charge compared to 2017-2019 models.

In the 2020 Chevrolet Menlo EV and Buick Velite 6, BEV2 features a 52.5 kWh rechargeable battery pack and an electric motor rated at 148 horsepower and 258 pound-feet torque.

Vehicle Applications

GM Alpha Platform Production Vehicle Applications
Year Make Model Powertrain Horsepower (hp / kW) Torque (lb-ft / Nm)
2017 – 2019 Chevrolet Bolt EV 60 kWh Battery 200 / 150 266 / 360
2019 – Present Buick Velite 6 52.5 kWh Battery 181 / 135 280 / 380
2020 – Present Chevrolet Bolt EV 66 kWh Battery 200 / 150 266 / 360
2020 – Present Chevrolet Menlo EV 52.5 kWh Battery 148 / 110 258 / 349
2021 – Present Chevrolet Bolt EUV 66 kWh Battery TBD TBD
2021 – Present Buick Velite 7 66 kWh Battery 175 / 130 266 / 360

GM BEV2 platform News

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