General Motors Corp. began testing pre-production versions of its Chevrolet Volt last week, which the company says is about two weeks ahead of schedule, AutoTech Daily reported Friday.
Volt Chief Engineer Andrew Farah, who piloted the car around GM’s Warren technical center last Tuesday, also fielded consumer questions last Thursday during an online chat.
GM plans to introduce the much-anticipated Volt in November 2010. By accelerating the testing schedule, the company says it will have extra time to refine the complex drivetrain, which will use a lithium-ion battery and electric motors to drive the wheels. A small gasoline engine will serve as a generator and partially recharge the battery pack but won’t be directly connected to the wheels.
GM had aimed to begin pre-production testing of the Volt by July 4. Up to this week it had tested prototypes of the car’s electric drivetrain only on a modified Chevrolet Cruze.
The car Farah drove employs the final chassis and bodywork, although some production features such as the final headlamp, tail lamp and paint have not been added yet.
The company plans to build 80 pre-production models by October, most of which will be used for testing and validating the production-intent design as well as developing the final vehicle software and controls and tuning overall driving characteristics. Some of the cars will be used in safety and structural integrity testing.
Engineers already have discovered a few unspecified changes that need to be made, but Farah characterizes them as “small tweaks” that are ordinary for this stage of the development process. He says the basic controls software architecture is complete, but the graphical user interface will be refined over the next few months. Adjustments also will be made on ride height, spring rates and other ride and handling characteristics based on the new round of testing.
The size of the fuel tank also has to be finalized. Farah says the production Volt will meet the original target of traveling up to 40 miles in electric mode and more than 300 miles on a full charge and full tank of gas. Performance characteristics will be the same whether the car is traveling on all-electric power or using the engine as a generator, according to Farah.
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