Set to be produced at a plant in White Marsh, Maryland, the Spark’s 85 kW, 114 hp motor will use nonophosphate lithium-ion batteries supplied by A123 Systems and have permanent magnet and induction motors. GM expects other vehicles in the future to run on propulsion motors, while nine of its vehicles already use electric motors as part of the propulsion system. According to GM’s Chief Engineer Pete Savagian, each of its electric motors has three long lives of 200k miles each.
“We’ve spent the past few years highlighting our in-house battery capability, which will play a significant role as one of our core competencies going forward,” said Larry Nitz, GM executive director of Vehicle Electrification Engineering. “Electric motor development and manufacturing is another area of expertise we’ll need as we expand vehicle electrification technologies to address the needs of our customers around the world.”
Until recently, electric cars have been held back in the US market due to a lack of choices, high price tags, poor infrastructure for charging stations and low fuel prices. But as the industry faces requirements to produce more fuel-efficient cars by 2025, the competition to build the greenest, sexiest electric cars has stimulated growth and innovation between competitors.
“We welcome competitors into the market,” Mark Perry, director of product planning for Nissan Americas, told Reuters. “We’re glad that GM has decided to go pure electric. This brings further validity to the segment.”
Under GM Chief Executive Daniel Akerson, GM’s fourth CEO since 2009, the company has pursued electric vehicles aggressively and is using the new Spark as a way to recoup some of the lost investment in the Volt. By mass-producing electric vehicle technology, as it did in the 90s, the cost of the cars would make them a fraction of the cost of the $40,000 Volt. Read entire article here.
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