Engineering the Volt

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04:38 | Matt Kelly | Feb 21st, 2007 5:00am |

This interview at the Chicago Auto Show happened by chance. I was standing next to the Chevy Volt and began a conversation with a gentleman who turned out to be Rich Lannen, one of the lead engineers of the this concept car being developed by GM. What followed was an illuminating discusssion about the challeneges of bringing this electric car from concept to production, and it all comes down to the batteries. Rich’s enthusiasm was contagious — I came away from the interview more excited than ever before about the promise of this vehicle and felt it was one of my best stories from the show.

Reporter’s Notes: My thanks to General Motors for inviting us to cover the Chicago Auto Show. They paid for our flight, meals and accomodations, plus provided access to high level spokespeople, engineers and designers for interviews, yet required no restrictions, review or edit control of our content prior to publishing.

Tags: Chevy Volt, Rich Lannen

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 21st, 2007 at 5:00 am and is filed under PodTech, Clean Tech, NextGear, Events, Technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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4 Responses to “Engineering the Volt”

newfrontiers2012:
February 21st, 2007 at 7:58 pm

Yes, yes, yes! That’s the best interview to date on the Volt. Rich confirmed regenerative braking and explained the strategy for the 40 mile battery range. My commute is 36 miles round trip. Indeed they have found the right balance for this vehicle. Recharging on household 110-120V in 6-8 hrs is a must as Rich suggests.

The commitment to production development is very encouraging. Go Chevy!
Matt Kelly, The Next Gear:
February 22nd, 2007 at 5:16 pm

Hi New-thanks for the note–I agree–I really felt this was one of the best stories I got from the Chicago show–Rich’s enthusiasm shows through. Many thanks to you and the yahoo group as some of the questions came from that forum–I was glad to just be the conduit to ask them and get answers!
Wade Nelson:
May 1st, 2007 at 3:03 pm

Great Interview. Thanks especially to GM for ALLOWING your engineers to speak!
Chevy Volt — The Engineer’s View-- Ride Care Depot:
May 3rd, 2007 at 11:50 pm

[…] In this interview from PodTech.net, Matt Kelly talks to Rich Lannen, Advanced Program Engineering Manager for the Chevrolet Volt, at the Chicago Auto Show. Rich defines what an E-Flex vehicle is, what makes the Volt a practical driving choice, and how General Motors is committed to bringing this concept to the market place. As Matt said on PodTech: “Rich’s enthusiasm was contagious I came away from the interview more excited than ever before about the promise of this vehicle and felt it was one of my best stories from the show.” […]