A few key clips from the story, followed by full text:
* the Volt is going some way to persuade cynics
that U.S. automakers are finally getting serious
about environmental technologies.
* many industry watchers, especially those in
Japan, remain skeptical that the Volt will do
much to narrow the gap between GM and hybrid leaders Toyota and Honda
* While details are scant, Toyota is also working
on plug-in hybrids of its own.
* Honda is working on ... plug-in hybrids of its own.
* a breakthrough in Li-ion battery
technology...is expected to happen in Japan
[from] Sanyo Electric, which supplies hybrid
batteries to Honda and Ford, and Panasonic EV
Energy, in which Toyota has a 60% stake

Below that is a Detroit Free Press story about GM
naming Denise Gray as its "battery czar" over a battery team of 30.

Asia January 19, 2007
In Green Push, GM Still Lags Japan
The Detroit automaker's Chevy Volt is getting a
lot of attention, but Toyota and Honda won't
relent in their drive to lead the hybrid market
http://www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/content/jan2007/gb20070119_906171.htm?camp\
aign_id=rss_topStories
by Ian Rowley

Of the dozens of vehicles on display at this
year's North American International Auto Show in
Detroit, GM's Chevy Volt concept car probably
commanded the most attention. The innovative car
uses electric power exclusively for up to 40
miles of a trip. Then the range-extending power
source—which creates electricity from either
gasoline, E85, or biodiesel—kicks in to recharge
the lithium ion battery pack (see
BusinessWeek.com, 1/7/07, "Chevy's Volt has the Juice").

What's more, as a plug-in hybrid (one that can
recharge its batteries either using a car engine
or connecting to the electricity grid), the Volt
has won praise for being a step up from current
offerings, which rely solely on the engine for recharging.

Just as important for Detroit, the Volt is going
some way to persuade cynics that U.S. automakers
are finally getting serious about environmental
technologies. "It is a rare occurrence when
Toyota gets "out-greened" at a major auto show,
or anywhere, for that matter. But GM has done
just that with its Volt," notes blog
AutoExtremist.com. (see BusinessWeek.com,
1/17/07, "A Hot Reception For GM's Volt").

GM accepts that battery technology will have to
improve markedly for the Volt to become a
reality. But it reckons that could happen as early as 2010.

Yet for all the hoopla, many industry watchers,
especially those in Japan, remain skeptical that
the Volt will do much to narrow the gap between
GM and hybrid leaders Toyota and Honda While
details are scant, Toyota is also working on
plug-in hybrids of its own. "GM is attempting to
catch up [in hybrids], but Toyota will maintain
the same speed or go even faster," says Hirofumi
Yokoi, an auto analyst at CSM Worldwide in Tokyo.

No Rest for the Weary

Toyota has already achieved what many in Detroit
thought was impossible: making hybrids
profitable. Although the company doesn't break
out figures by model, Merrill Lynch analyst
Koichi Sugimoto estimates that profit margins on
the Prius hybrid are between 3% and 5%. For more
expensive models, like the Lexus RX 400h, margins are even higher.

Moreover, while GM looks to the future with
plug-ins, Toyota has big plans to improve its
current gas-electric offerings. In late 2008 or
early 2009, it is expected to launch a
third-generation hybrid system that should raise
the bar for the entire segment.

The new system, which will use Li-ion batteries
instead of the current nickel metal hydride
cells, is expected to be half the size of current
hybrid systems and, more important, half the
price. Fuel efficiency, reckons Merrill's
Sugimoto, will be improved by 20% to 30%.

Toyota is also expected to widen its range of
hybrids. In the future, the company could offer a
hybrid version of any model that sells more than
100,000 units a year (see BusinessWeek.com,
4/3/06, "Toyota Winning the Hybrid Race").
Speaking at the Detroit show, Toyota North
America chief Jim Press told reporters the
company is looking to boost hybrid sales by 50%
in 2007, to between 250,000 and 300,000.

Unrelenting Efforts

Honda also is making headway on environmentally
friendly technology. Last fall it revealed it is
developing a "green" diesel car for the U.S.
market (see BusinessWeek.com, 10/30/06, "Honda's
(Green) Diesel Machines"). In addition, the
company has plans to begin leasing out a fuel
cell car, a version of the FCX Concept, in 2008.

In gas-electric hybrids, Honda is working on a
new subcompact model that will likely debut in
2009, and plug-in hybrids of its own. "Hybrid
technology is very strong and proven technology
for improving fuel economy," Motoatsu Shiraishi,
president of Honda research and development, told
reporters at the Detroit Show. "And we won't
relent in our efforts. We are studying what kind
of conditions would enable a plug-in."

But perhaps the biggest indicator that Japanese
carmakers are poised to stay in the lead is that
a breakthrough in Li-ion battery technology—vital
if the Volt is to get off the ground—is expected
to happen in Japan. Sanyo Electric, which
supplies hybrid batteries to Honda and Ford, and
Panasonic EV Energy, in which Toyota has a 60%
stake, are the leading makers of nickel hydride
hybrid batteries and are investing heavily in
Li-ions (see BusinessWeek.com, 9/20/06, "Battery
Woes Spark Few Concerns Among Asian Carmakers").

To catch up with the Japanese, the Big Three U.S.
automakers are asking Washington to subsidize
advanced battery research to the tune of $500
million, spread over five years. GM, meanwhile,
has asked Johnson Controls-Saft Advanced Power
Solutions, a joint venture between
automotive-systems manufacturer Johnson Controls
(JCI) and Paris-based Saft, and Cobasys, a joint
venture between Chevron and Energy Conversion Devices to develop Li-ions.

"No question, the Japanese will commercialize
lithium ion first, but I do think the U.S. can be
fast followers," says Per Onnerud, chief
technical officer of Boston-Power, a lithium ion
battery company based in Westborough, Mass.

Edited by Cristina Lindblad


GM places bets on alternative fuel vehicles
Automaker names engineer to develop long-lasting, safe batteries for the cars
January 21, 2007
Detroit Free Press - Detroit,MI,USA
Contact KATIE MERX at 313-222-8762 or
kmerx@.... Staff Writer Joe Guy Collier contributed to this report.
<http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070121/BUSINESS01/701210599>

By showing the Chevrolet Volt plug-in electric
concept car this month at the North American
International Auto Show, General Motors Corp. has
staked its reputation -- and a large chunk of
change -- on developing cars and trucks that can
be propelled by something other than just gasoline.

To make it happen, GM quietly appointed Denise
Gray last fall to be its battery czar.

A Michigan native and career GM engineer and
manager, Gray's actual title is director of hybrid energy storage systems.

Her charge is to lead the team that will engineer
energy storage systems -- you probably call them
batteries -- that can store enough energy pulled
from an electrical plug, fuel cell, a tank of
vegetable oil or good old gasoline to run a
vehicle that will run beyond a GM warranty and won't overheat.

Her task is a big one.

"It is expensive to do the kinds of stuff we
talked about," GM Chairman and CEO Rick Wagoner
told the Free Press last week without divulging
cost targets. "This costs a lot of money to do."

At both the Los Angeles and Detroit auto shows,
Wagoner has called the electrification of
vehicles and the development of plug-in hybrid
production vehicles "a top priority program for
GM, given the huge potential it offers for fuel-economy improvement."

Last week, he told an industry conference that
developing advanced propulsion systems is a top
priority because it's "highly unlikely" that oil
alone will supply all of the world's rapidly
growing automotive energy requirements.

GM says the Volt could travel 40 miles on a fully
charged lithium-ion battery and more than 600
miles using a three-cylinder gasoline engine that recharges the battery.

GM is aggressively pushing the concept further by
pursuing the technology needed to make the Volt's
powertrain a reality for a production vehicle,
said auto analyst Stephanie Brinley of AutoPacific Inc. in Southfield.

But development of the Volt's so-called E-flex
propulsion system is dependent on advancements in
lithium-ion battery technology. Such an advanced
lithium-ion battery does not exist, yet.

Skeptics argue that its development is far off.
Manufacturers still are having problems with some
smaller lithium-ion batteries already used in
personal electronics. Last fall, Sony Corp.
recalled 9.6 million lithium-ion batteries used
in laptop computers after reports of sparks, overheating and fires.

The batteries needed to run vehicles would be larger.

GM Vice Chairman Bob Lutz admits that there is
work to do. GM needs a battery that will last
longer, will cost less and won't overheat. But,
he said, GM is proceeding as if the Volt, or
something like it, were a viable product.

The technology is at a point that GM believes it
could have a product ready as soon as 2010.

Earlier this month, GM awarded development
contracts to suppliers Johnson Controls-Saft and
Cobasys (with another partner) to create and test
lithium-ion batteries that will be installed in
prototype vehicles for testing later this year.

But Gray, whose newly assigned team of 30 is
responsible for developing and testing the
battery systems for all of GM's planned hybrids
-- including the two-mode hybrids expected to
debut later this year and a Saturn Vue plug-in
hybrid announced at the Los Angeles auto show --
said when it comes to production of the Volt: "No
dates in my mind have been established."

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Felix Kramer fkramer@...
Founder California Cars Initiative
http://www.calcars.org
http://www.calcars.org/news-archive.html
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