[tiger955rider]

If you could take the drive train of the Gen II Volt and the battery capacity of a P100D and put them together what kind of electric range would you end up with factoring in the extra weight, the efficiency of the volt drive train, etc?

 

[Raymondjram]

If the Gen 2 Volt has an efficiency of 4 miles per kWh, then the answer is easy: 400 miles. This is still hypothetical.

 

[llninja]

If you could take the drive train of the Gen II Volt and the battery capacity of a P100D and put them together what kind of electric range would you end up with factoring in the extra weight, the efficiency of the volt drive train, etc?

And put it on the suburban body and frame....

 

[Fyodor]

You'd have to factor in the extra battery weight, which has to be 300 kg or more. That's a lot to lug around with a Volt motor.

 

[16513]

You would have .....(drumroll) Gen 3 Volt. Coming, but not soon, to a dealer near you.

 

[llninja]

You would have .....(drumroll) Gen 3 Volt. Coming, but not soon, to a dealer near you.

I actually think (hope) that we don't see a Volt 3, but instead we get the entire GM lineup (Vette, Camaro, Impala, Equinox, Silverado, Suburban) with ICE, BEV, and PHEV options. One can only dream.

 

[Loboc]

100kwh would pretty much eliminate the gen set need. 100kwh would make a pretty heavy compact car. If it's even possible because of space.

 

[llninja]

100kwh would pretty much eliminate the gen set need. 100kwh would make a pretty heavy compact car. If it's even possible because of space.

Thus the suburban body and frame...(ad nausium)

 

[saghost]

If you could take the drive train of the Gen II Volt and the battery capacity of a P100D and put them together what kind of electric range would you end up with factoring in the extra weight, the efficiency of the volt drive train, etc?

What kind of car are you putting it in? Range is affected at least as much by the load side (weight/rolling resistance, aerodynamics) as it is by the powertrain itself.

The Suburban version a few folks are proposing based on the size/weight of what you asked for wouldn't get nearly as far as either of the source cars, because it's a huge heavy car with fairly poor aerodynamics (hard to make bricks slippery, I'm sure GM is doing the best they can with it.)

It's also not the way I'd design an extended range car with ~90 kWh of usable energy - I'd use a much lighter, more compact generator in series that's only intended to match the steady state load, and on the rare occasions where it gets used, I'd hold on to a bigger buffer (4 kWh?) to handle acceleration and hill climbing. Sorta like the i3 REx approach in principle, but without the limitations that make the i3 so frustrating.

Since we're doing this by kitbashing at the moment, that'd also let me hang on to the Tesla drive motors and all that glorious torque and acceleration. (depending on the size/weight of the final car, of course.)

 

[mike100]

For me, the trouble is less with the battery size, but with how many kWh one can use on a daily basis before it costs too much or exceeds my ability to offset it with solar generation.

Would I like 2-3 more kWh in a battery of about the same mass? -Yes. Do I want a giant battery?-only in a pure ev. If anything, I would like a few more liters of gas tank (1.5-2 gallons) in the volt.

 

[llninja]

At a minimum, I think it would be nice if GM offered different sized batteries to volt and bolt owners so people can right size for their commute plus upgrade later if their commute changes. So someone who lives 5 miles from work can get a 20 mile EV range volt using only the center console part of the battery at a much lower price point. Then folks like me with a daily 65 mile commute would opt for the super pak to get 80 miles or so of range, filling additional space around the rear axle area of the volt.

I like the faraday futures' concept of adding additional battery packs as the wheelbase increases in length.

 

[saghost]

At a minimum, I think it would be nice if GM offered different sized batteries to volt and bolt owners so people can right size for their commute plus upgrade later if their commute changes. So someone who lives 5 miles from work can get a 20 mile EV range volt using only the center console part of the battery at a much lower price point. Then folks like me with a daily 65 mile commute would opt for the super pak to get 80 miles or so of range, filling additional space around the rear axle area of the volt.

I like the faraday futures' concept of adding additional battery packs as the wheelbase increases in length.

Interesting. A couple of challenges - smaller packs mean less available power unless you stress the cells more, and with the large cells GM/LG Chem are using they only have a couple size options without changing either the cells or the pack voltage.

With Gen2's 192 cell architecture, you'd pretty much have to make it a 9.2 kWh 96 cell version to avoid affecting all the voltage targets - possibly 28 mile EPA given the lighter weight and half the available energy?

The part that I think would make that a hard sell is that it'd also only have ~65 kW of maximum power on battery (assuming the cells aren't able to do more than they are programmed to in the current cars) - similar to the Energi twins. (The obvious alternative is to make the smaller packs out of a power oriented chemistry instead, but that reduces the weight savings and forces additional engineering costs.)

Of course, you'd want to make complete integrated packs at each size rather than add on packs - that lets you keep cooling and BMS functions integrated and avoids having multiple series strings in parallel or duplicating service disconnects and contactors.

 

[hellsop]

TBH, this is beginning to sound like it could be answered with "If you want a Prius Prime, you know where to get one."

 

[llninja]

TBH, this is beginning to sound like it could be answered with "If you want a Prius Prime, you know where to get one."

I wish I could choose my battery size like the way tesla gives you 60 70, 85, 90, 100 (and for a short time 40). I personally don't want a Prius prime or an energi, but I would opt for the biggest battery config available.