First 2011 Chevy Volt Battery Powers Out of Brownstown

[du4lstrik3]

disappointing. GM could've easily designed a battery with a much larger range, especially with how much lithium polymer these enormous batteries use. nope, gotta keep big oil happy.

not only is it NOT better for the environment (think of the amount of fossil fuels expended in developing countries in order to craft the battery), it's just prolonging our next problem:

what are we going to do when the lithium gets scarce and china says no more for us?

[BrooklynNYC777]

we need a plant like this in new york city..........

[Charles2337]

Amazing car.

I can see modders installing more powerful and high capacity batteries in this car afterwards. Sort of like electric car "tuning" =)

[jpsalsman]

What is the duty cycle in expected years life? Why isn't it modular? Why was li-poly preferred over lithium iron?

[kieranmullen]

@jpsalsman Seems to work ok with ipods and iphones.

[Kingsoupturbo]

So basically they just inspect the battery, talk about redundency in jobs, like 10 ppl seem to do the exact same thing, measure, voltage test, pass it to next person, no wonder GM went bankrupt sheesh

[DaifukuAmerica]

This video shows the use of the SmartCart Automatic Guide Cart (AGC) by Jervis B Webb, a Daifuku company.

[Fairdude1]

I have a feeling that the project will be canceled as soon as they are financially stable again, aka marketing stunt of the NEW GM all technologically advanced and shit .. of course, I hope not.

[canamm]

Just like the GM Impact. They never wanted to build that one in the first place and it happens to be the best car they've ever produced. 150 mile range on Li-ion. The Chevy Volt has a range of 40 miles and then starts using gas.

[alSation81]

whats the big fuss; I'd rather have an EV1 ... though these dipsticks should be up to the EV5 by now

[ddpxl]

SHIFTED LENSES FAIL !!!  DESIGN DEPT. FAIL !!! .. Use at least a fading ! omg

[iplop]

That's the biggest Lithium Polymer battery I've ever seen. :o

[jujitsu62]

One thing the union bashers forgot . North American worker safety . Working with toxins has tons of regulations that make it extremely difficult for makers to build in N.A. Enviromental rules for you and your families safety . Do you think these asian countries care about how many die while making your trinkets ? No and as long as the money pores in , nothing changes . It cost a fortune for waste treatment , water treatment and disposal in N.A. Asia ...pore it into the river for your friends

[jujitsu62]

G.M. should have show this video at the L.A. Auto show instead of humiliating those poor girls into doing that idiot Chevy Volt Dance . In the early stages of production a lot of the work is hands on . No one waves a magic wand or clicks their heals together . It all has to start somewhere . This is for all manufacturing everywhere. Even your wonderful Chinese and Koreans that now have your jobs have to start at grass roots with the technology stolen from the big three and European makers.

[Chronox5]

i'll be so happy the day the first ev's are available for the masses

[tomintroy]

@Chronox5 You may rejoice to your hearts content. First EV's went public 90 years ago.

[dlix]

why the tilt shift. god GM can't do anything right

[Craigvr]

I just saw a whole lot of nothing.

[JogBird]

ummm.. so, the cells are made in Asia and then assembled by UAW that mark up the price 20x?? hmm.. how about get rid of the unions and be able to sell the Voilt at 2/3 the price? volt is going to be EV1 all over again

[JT44215]

No UAW in this plant

[Charles2337]

@JogBird

I agree. Fucking unions destroying companies like this.

[GorillaSalsa]

Does anybody know what the song in this video is?

[Jimmyikon]

Video of assembly? It showed up fully assembled. They just had 5 or 6 people pick it up and move it around a few times. Unions at work I guess.

[MajorAtt12de]

@Jimmyikon

Yeah they skipped all the environmental damage that goes into actually making a battery, cute, eh?

[bspdragon]

The cells are made in Korea so no they don't show the damage. LG does plan to build a plant in Detroit soon though. Batteries are still better than Combustion engines.

[floobertuber]

@Jimmyikon Here's a thought. Because the assembly of the pack is largely done with robots, and proprietary, they may not have wanted to reveal that part of it. Hence you only see some of the bits involving humans (like adding the external power cables) and pallatizing it for delivery to the Volt line.

Frankly I'm amazed they have even been as open with the Volt development process as the HAVE been...  What's Nissan showing us about the Leaf's engineering, for example? Zilch!

[jgleim]

You're right. I work at the company that built the cell assembly line. I was disappointed that this picks up after our system but I can understand why. The pack is built nearly entirely with robots and it's wicked cool to see running.

[JT44215]

Ro Rocket scientist - The "cells" are assembled in Korea.

[JT44215]

And the gold star goes to you floobertuber!

[iplop]

@Jimmyikon

I'm pretty sure the video was of the final quality testing.

[JT44215]

The IP is under the cover... It's the reason the cover is on.

[jtmcdole]

Can't wait till one is available in Georgia.