Last night miamipress was invited to an exclusive event at Cocowalk featuring the Chevrolet Volt concept car. We met and had dinner with Senior Creative Designer From the GM Advanced Technology Studio Team Mathieu Boimare.

Mathieu’s three European university degrees in science, fine arts, and industrial design provide him with a broad international vision. In his Master’s program, he designed a wide variety of products including packaging and furniture for Ligne Roset and Addform, interning at the time for Thibault Desombre Design in Montpelier, France. In 2002 Mathieu graduated from the famous French design school called ENSAD or “Arts Deco”, in Paris.

His first full-time professional experiences were in China where he designed the interior of a restaurant/nightclub. He was also involved in getting his design for a Personal Submarine into production, and learned a more than a little about Chinese manufacturing challenges.

What most impressed us at this showing was the detail GM Techs devoted into making a car that would appeal to the Luxury Sports Car Market. Until now the average driver is not happy with the performance or look of the Hybrids on the market.

‘First and foremost, this is an advanced technology vehicle that uses little to no fuel at all. But we didn’t see any reason why that should compromise its design,’ GM Design led the design team that created the Volt concept, with designs solicited from GM’s studios around the world. ‘We wanted a size that connected with everyone, so we designed a small car,’In the end, the interior design team from England inspired the final interior execution, and the exterior is the work of the Michigan advanced design team.

The Chevrolet Volt is a battery-powered, four-passenger electric vehicle that uses a gas engine to create additional electricity to extend its range. The Volt draws from GM’s previous experience in starting the modern electric vehicle market when it launched the EV1 in 1996, according to GM Vice Chairman Robert A. Lutz. ‘The EV1 was the benchmark in battery technology and was a tremendous achievement,’ Lutz said. ‘Even so, electric vehicles, in general, had limitations.

They had limited range, limited room for passengers or luggage, couldn’t climb a hill or run the air conditioning without depleting the battery, and had no device to get you home when the battery’s charge ran low.

‘The Chevrolet Volt is a new type of electric vehicle. It addresses the range problem and has room for passengers and their stuff. You can climb a hill or turn on the air conditioning and not worry about it.’

The Volt can be fully charged by plugging it into a 110-volt outlet for approximately six hours a day. When the lithium-ion battery is fully charged, the Volt can deliver 40 city miles of pure electric vehicle range. When the battery is depleted, a 1L, three-cylinder turbocharged engine spins at a constant speed, or revolutions per minute (rpm), to create electricity and replenish the battery. According to Lutz, this increases the fuel economy and range.

‘If you lived within 30 miles from work (60 miles round trip) and charged your vehicle every night when you came home or during the day at work, you would get 150 miles per gallon,’ Lutz said. ‘More than half of all Americans live within 20 miles of where they work (40 miles round trip). In that case, you might never burn a drop of gas during the life of the car.’ In addition, the Chevrolet Volt is designed to run on E85, a fuel blend of 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline. Using E85, fuel economy of 150 mpg would translate into more than 525 miles per petroleum gallon. In the event a driver forgets to charge the vehicle or goes on a vacation far away, the Volt would still get 50 mpg by using the engine to convert gasoline into electricity and extending its range up to 640 miles, more than double that of today’s conventional vehicles. A technological breakthrough required to make this concept a reality is a large lithium-ion battery.

This type of electric car, which the technical community calls an ‘EV range-extender,’ would require a battery pack that weighs nearly 400 pounds (181 kg). Some experts predict that such a battery – or a similar battery – could be production-ready by 2010 to 2012. Jon Lauckner, GM vice president of Global Program Management, said the Volt is uniquely built to accommodate a number of advanced technology propulsion solutions that can give GM a competitive advantage.

‘Today’s vehicles were designed around mechanical propulsion systems that use petroleum as their primary source of fuel.’ Lauckner said. Tomorrow’s vehicles need to be developed around a new propulsion architecture with electricity in mind. The Volt is the first vehicle designed around GM’s E-flex System.’That’s why we are also showing a variant of the Chevrolet Volt with a hydrogen-powered fuel cell, instead of a gasoline engine EV range-extender,’ said Lauckner. ‘Or, you might have a diesel engine driving the generator to create electricity, using bio-diesel. Finally, an engine using 100-percent ethanol might be factored into the mix. The point is, all of these alternatives are possible with the E-Flex System.’

While the technologically advanced Chevrolet Volt has the capability to travel 40 miles on electricity alone, at first glance, the concept could easily be mistaken as simply a design statement. The Volt conveys an immediate message of agility and sophistication, with exterior proportions more commonly associated with classic sports cars. Twenty-one-inch wheels and sheer, taut surface relationships reterate the statement. The Chevrolet Volt’s athletic design challenges the notion that an environmentally conscious vehicle can’t be beautiful and possess an aesthetic spirit that matches its driving characteristics. ‘We’ve leveraged our resources around the globe to develop the design aesthetic for the Volt,’ said Ed Welburn, vice president, GM Global Design. ‘It was important that the design capture the face of Chevrolet as it’s recognized around the world.’ Design and engineering collaboration between GM designers and GE Plastics, using unique material technology and design engineering support, helped achieve the Volt’s distinctive appearance. True to the heritage of its Chevrolet bowtie, the Volt’s exterior design suggests spirited performance and is wrapped in a stylish package, with classic Chevrolet performance cues that hint at both Camaro and Corvette.

We would like to thank Gloria Huang and her team for a great night.

Filed under: Auto Show, General Motors, Volt, car, car show