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General Motors CEO Provides Few Details In Appearance Before Congress

It was only two months ago that Mary Barra, freshly crowned as the new General Motors chief executive officer, visited Washington DC as an esteemed guest of First Lady Michelle Obama for the State of the Union address. On Tuesday, Barra returned to the Capitol under more strained circumstances. For more than two contentious hours, she took questions from members of a House of Representatives subcommittee investigating General Motors years-long delay in initiating a recall of millions of vehicles that contained a defect that has killed at least 13 people. Why did GM accept faulty ignition switches that were below the company's set specfications? Why did GM learn about the problem in 2001 yet take no action until 2014? Will GM compensate victims' families even though the company's bankruptcy may limit its liability? Those were a few of the questions members of the House Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee asked. Few concrete answers were forthcoming. For her part, Barra sidestepped most of the questions, saying she wouldn't have information needed to answer them until an internal review is completed. David Friedman, the administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, testified after Barra. The biggest news that emerged from the hearing was that General Motors has retained attorney Kenneth Feinberg to advise the company on its civil and legal responsibilities. He has made a career of resolving disputes and serving in a 'fixer' role, serving as the chief of the federal government's September 11th Victim Compensation Fund, as an administrator of compensation fund for victims of the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster and a similar fund for victims of the Boston Marathon bombing. Barra, who has been GM's CEO since January but been with the company since 1980, expects to meet with Feinberg on Friday, and have a concrete plan within the next 30-60 days. Yet Barra would not say for certain Tuesday that GM would compensate the victims at all. Despite repeated questions from Rep. Diana DeGette (D-Colo.), Barra did not outline the company's intentions. "I assume GM is hiring (Feinberg) to help identify the size of claims and then compensate the victims? Is that right," DeGette asked. "Is GM willing to put together some kind of a compensation fund for these victims that Mr. Feinberg will then administer?" "We've hired him to help assess the situation," Barra replied. "So really, there's no money involved at this point," DeGette asked.

2016 Chevy Volt will have more EV range, bigger battery

Meet the new Volt, not the same as the old Volt. That appears to be the story when General Motors introduces the 2016 Chevy Volt at the Detroit Auto Show in January. Today we're getting some more details on the guts of the new plug-in hybrid, and it turns out they're going to be much improved from the current Volt, which first went on sale at the end of 2010. Sure, the first-gen Volt did get some improvements along the way (a slightly larger battery pack, lane departure warnings) but the new Volt – which will go on sale in the second half of 2015 – marks the first time GM has been able to return to the drawing board and really make the improvements that its customers want. That's how Larry Nitz, GM's executive director of vehicle electrification explained it to AutoblogGreen today when explaining the all-new Voltec extended range electric vehicle (EREV) powertrain. "In the Gen 2 is we gave the engine a little more power, a little more torque, a little more displacement, more capability." – Larry Nitz Nitz said that the new Volt will be better in almost every sense: a bigger battery, longer EV-only range, 20 percent better acceleration in the low speed range and higher overall efficiency. This is due, in part, to the Volt's two motors being able to both act as generators and power the car. As we noted this morning, the 2016 Volt will use a larger, 1.5-liter four-cylinder engine, a version of which is already used in the Chinese-market Cruze. Nitz said that this has a number of benefits, including more power and quieter operation. "Some people would say, why did you make [the first-gen engine] so big. I would say, why did you make it so small?" he said. "It works good, our customers love it, but the reality is that if you go a little bit off and use the car a little harder, you can get the engine to need to operate at a higher speed. In an EV, that's quite noticeable. So, what we did in the Gen 2 is we gave the engine a little more power, a little more torque, a little more displacement, more capability and what it has marginally enabled is not only is it more efficient but it's also quieter." Nitz wouldn't talk about how the new powertrain might affect the two other products that use the Volt's underpinnings – the Cadillac ELR and the Opel Ampera – but if you've got a quieter option, we assume that's something ELR drivers would enjoy. But that's a story for another day.

GM, Pilot will build EVgo fast chargers at 500 truck stops across U.S.

All of our maps showing electric vehicle charging stations across the U.S. are going to need an update. Today, General Motors, Pilot and EVgo announced plans to work together on a nationwide DC fast charging network. The plan calls for 2,000 charging stalls that can deliver up to 350 kW to be installed at up to 500 Pilot and Flying J travel centers in the U.S. The goal is to have DC fast chargers available in 50-mile intervals across the country. The new charging stations will feature GM's "Ultium Charge 360" branding and "Pilot Flying J" logos but will not be limited to drivers of GM EVs. The plugs will use CCS connectors and be available to anyone. GM EV owners can take advantage of benefits, including the ability to make exclusive reservations, get discounts on charging costs and streamline the charging process with Plug and Charge and in-vehicle apps that can provide real-time charger availability. The first installation phase will take place in 2023, and "the bulk of the installations" should be completed by 2025, EVgo CEO Kathy Zoi said during a conference call with reporters announcing the plan. "We're gonna get going immediately and commence all of that engineering and planning stuff," she said. "We've got a pretty orderly plan." Pilot CEO Shameek Konar said the company expects the new EV charging stations to coexist with the current fuel infrastructure. "An average Pilot Flying J location is about 10 acres," Konar said. "This will be in addition to all of our gas pumps. The way I think about it is, this is a new source of energy that is going to coexist with gas for quite some time. We can debate how long, but we need to serve both groups of customers." Installing DC fast chargers at hundreds of Pilot's travel centers — aka truck stops — means there should be food, drinks, restrooms, WiFi and even showers available while you wait for an EV to charge. Pilot recently announced its “New Horizons” plan that will invest $1 billion in upgrading Pilot travel centers with more premium amenities, including expanded seating and lounge areas. While the exact amount of time it will take to charge an EV using these new stations will vary on the EV and its current state of charge, most EVs can refill from a low state of charge to around 80 percent in 20-30 minutes on a fast charger. The new stations are future-proofed to deliver up to 350 kW, a charge rate that few EVs today can handle.