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NEWS
Spark EV heads GM electrification plan
GM reveals Spark EV, promises 500,000 electrified vehicle sales by 2017General Motors has revealed an all-electric version of Holden’s Barina Spark, representing the second installment of an electrification strategy that it promises will result in up to 500,000 electrified vehicles on the road within five years.
Announced at this week’s GM Electrification Experience in San Francisco, the plan will focus on plug-in technology rather than hybrid systems like the one used by Toyota’s Prius.
The move marks a dramatic contrast to Toyota, which is on target to overtake GM as the world’s biggest car-maker in 2012, and which notched up one million hybrid vehicle sales for the first time in a single year this month.
Including its Lexus luxury brand, Toyota has now sold more than 4.6 million hybrids globally, with more than 10,000 due to find homes in Australia this year.
Holden handed over the first example of its inaugural electrified vehicle, the Volt plug-in hybrid, to the US ambassador to Australia at last month’s Sydney motor show and while US sales commenced in 2010, public sales in Australia started on November 1.
“The plug-in offers a unique opportunity to change the way people commute,” said Mary Barra, Senior Vice-President of Global Product Development at Wednesday’s event via satellite from Detroit.
“Plug-based solutions will play a significant role in our technology portfolio going forward. What started out as a technology proof point… has turned into a real-world starting point to push EV technology further and faster than we thought possible five years ago.
“The unique propulsion technology pioneered in the Volt – the same technology that will be featured in the Cadillac ELR – will be a core piece of our electrification strategy going forward.”
GM said it is on track to sell more than 50,000 electrified vehicles this year, including the Volt and eAssist versions of the Buick LaCrosse, Regal and Chevrolet Malibu. The same “light electrification technology” will also be available in the 2014 Chevrolet Impala when it debuts next year.
“Our commitment to eAssist is unwavering,” said GM’s top product development executive. “In fact, our future portfolio calls for eAssist to be on hundreds of thousands of GM vehicles annually by 2017.”
Ms Barra said the Spark EV – GM’s second battery-electric vehicle after the EV1 coupe, about 1100 examples of which were leased in the US between 1996 and 1999, when GM controversially axed the program and crushed many of them due to high costs – will go on sale next year in selected US markets and South Korea.
“We’ll meet requirements set by certain regulatory agencies, but we’re not building the Spark EV to check a regulatory box,” she said.
In Australia, however, Holden has no plans to offer any electrified vehicles beyond the Volt, with the Spark EV and eAssist version of the Malibu (which arrives in local showrooms next year), unlikely to be sold here in the foreseeable future.
“We have no plans at present, but never say never,” said GM Holden External Communications Director Craig Cheetham, who added that it also had no plans to introduce eAssist – and for that matter top-shelf LTZ Turbo – versions of the Malibu from launch.
Due to make its global debut at the Los Angeles motor show on November 28, the Spark EV will be launched directly into the US domestic consumer market by mid-2013 – without the usual limited fleet lease programs – and thereafter into markets across the globe.
Executives say it's too early to go public with a price for the US market and, at least until showtime, the company remains cagey about its drivetrain metrics, save for a lithium-ion battery pack of “more than 20kWh” helping give it a range “among the best in its class”, and an in-house developed permanent magnet electric motor producing “more than 100kW”.
With “about 400 lb-ft” (542Nm) of instantaneous torque on hand, GM promises snappy performance, making the 0-60mph (97km/h) dash in “under eight seconds”. A brief drive revealed the Spark EV to be palpably quicker than the Volt, with which it shares some of its componentry.
To speed up development and keep costs and therefore price down, the company drew where it could from the Volt and its two-mode hybrid truck technology. All up, it borrows more than 75 per cent of its powertrain componentry from those programs, for example taking the Volt's motor control and cooling system almost wholesale.
The company promises the Spark EV – one of 13 new or significantly redesigned products that Chevrolet will launch in 2013 - will also be quick to charge, thanks to its adoption of the recently released SAE combo DC rapid charger.
The soon-to-be-released SAE system will be established and available by the time the car reaches the market. GM says it's good for an 80 per cent recharge from flat in around 20 minutes, helping quell the range anxiety that's cruelled EV sales worldwide to date.
Although GM sourced the car's 336-cell Li-Ion power pack from troubled battery specialist A123 Systems, company executives are confident of continued supply.
Meantime, Australia’s slow-selling Barina Spark will finally become available with an automatic transmission from next month, possible as part of a mild 2013 update. Sales of the Korean-made Spark are down two-thirds on 2011 levels, with just 1168 sold to October this year.
In addition to the Spark EV, Chevrolet will also use the LA show to showcase the all-new Impala, Malibu Turbo, Sonic (Barina) RS, Traverse crossover and Camaro Hot Wheels Edition.
Watch this space for our first drive of the Spark EV soon.
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Written byJeremy Bass
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