GM Silver Volt – the grandfather of modern hybrids

8 August 2018

In the distant 1980, GM announced the concept of the hybrid car with sensational performance

The second oil crisis (1979-1982) due to the outbreak of the Iran-Iraq war struck America are much stronger than the first in 1973-1974 due to the six day war. So, in 1980 the price of oil on the world market reached a peak of $35 per barrel (159 l), which adjusted for inflation is $106 per barrel in the price of 2018. Especially hard hit Detroit, i.e. "Big three" in the face of GM, Ford and Chrysler, which have suffered enormous losses not only due to the sharp drop in sales, triggered by the rise in gasoline prices, but, more importantly, literally as tectonic earthquake at the speed and scale of shift the attention of American buyers on fuel-efficient compact models. What Detroit just at the moment practically not produced, but the competitors from the Country of the rising sun has been able to provide in large numbers. So in the gutters on the West coast of the United States stood at that time, $ 0.8 million of previously unclaimed Japanese small cars that began to scatter as hot pies, i.e. "hot dogs". Of course, amid collapsed in an oligopoly "the Big three" tsunami of criticism from society, the media and even authorities,  the owners of the American car market had to kind of throw the bone to public opinion. The entrance went out and the three-cylinder diesels (!) for premium Cadillac Seville and a number of other notions, including remembered about the existence of electric vehicles.

To divert public attention from criticism GM has offered in 1980 a concept hybrid wagon, GM Silver Volt

So, GM has ordered a specialized company Electric Auto Corporation to create a hybrid electric car, which was presented at the very climax of the oil crisis in 1980, when America went crazy with the price tags at gas stations. Hybrid wagon based on the serial station wagon Buick brand was quite futuristic in appearance, and was named a Silver Volt, and 30 years before the current hybrid Chevrolet Volt and 16 years before the famous but unsuccessful experiment with the electric car GM EV1.

In the station wagon managed to put a lead-acid battery weighing more than a ton

The GM Volt concept Silver, converted to a hybrid of conventional universal company Electric Auto Corporation
Electric Auto firm today claims that its Volt concept Silver allegedly had almost twice the reserve only on electricity against the current Volt, and the stock of its progress ranged from 80 to 100 miles (128-161 km) between charges... lead-acid battery. Design of the traction battery was proprietary know-how and with the use of the special plates could be charged to 80 percent in just 45 minutes.
The hybrid also had a small "auxiliary power unit based on internal combustion engine" (APU), whose characteristics are lost in time.
The APU assumed the supply of additional systems such as air conditioning and heater, as well as to charge the conventional 12-volt battery, provide lighting, but usually it is not required for trips shorter than 30 miles (48 km).

At the request of the firms in the hybrid wagon has a top speed of 70 mph (in 112.6 km/h) and can move at a cruising speed of 55 mph (88,5 km/h), which became in those days the Federal standard, introduced for fuel economy.
For the early 1980-ies Silver Volt was considered a luxury car with a brake booster and steering, the electric Windows and seats, and a marble bathroom at the rear of the vinyl roof.

The second instance Silver Volt differed exterior and sloping rear wall of the body, i.e. were most likely already ultimately the newest 

Early experimental sample were standing elastic urethane bumpers, and the forward part of a body of type "station wagon" received aerodynamic sloping front end and put forward headlights. Like the plastic nose and tail parts of the body, is intended to minimize damage in low speed accidents have now become almost universally accepted in the automotive industry, but without these lights, which did not take root even in the supercars.

Modern hybrid Chevrolet Volt accused of too small supply of electrical stroke that is equal to only 85 km

In a sign of how much how advanced was his engineers 30 years ago, GM boasted that the Silver Volt battery could last up to replace the supposedly 40 000 miles (64 to 400 km). For the price of a hybrid supposedly fit into the $14 000 (for today it is $42 400) – a low enough price even for today's production models of the same function, but very high for America in the early 1980s, which is used to cheap cars that were considered consumer goods.

And yet, frankly, I want to quote the phrase of one of heroes of miniatures Raikin: "Oh, and make a fool of our brother. Oh, and fool!". Something extremely doubtful that a real reserve heavy car for a lead-acid battery was 128-160 km. the Actual specific energy of a lead-acid battery is 30-40 W•h / kg (Yes, the theoretical energy consumption is up to 133 W•h / kg, but to get her really no one has yet succeeded), and discharge below 50% capacity they would love. Take energy consumption for 100 kilometers at this grandfather of the hybrid, put in just one and a half times more than the current Chevrolet Volt. He, accordingly, consumption is 18.4 kWh at 85 km, E. specific gravity of 21.6 kWh per 100 km Multiplied by 1.5 and get about 32-33 kWh per hundred, which put on minimal mileage 128 km, so that adds up to about 41-42 kWh Lead-acid battery typical for the age of the tank was to weigh of the order of 1300-1400 kg. Where on earth it is in the universal set? Based on archival photos of AKB, there were two: the main trunk and one under the hood. A lead-acid battery super-fast so is still not charged, for example, in China the recent budget versions of urban electric vehicles also used a lead-acid battery and did the such outstanding, neither the reserve, nor at the time of recharge is not shown. In addition, when charging such a battery emit a sulfur smell (familiar to many older readers through the process of recharging of batteries in the garage), which instantly penetrates into the interior of the electric vehicle. So that the remarkable characteristics of this converted hybrid, not created from scratch as the current Volt, not too hard to believe – it looks like all the same engine took to increase the power reserve Siver Volt is much more involved than it says Electric Auto.

To create a little bit competitive at least on the hybrid lead-cyclonic battery was nevozmojno and then much later. Except that the degree of utilization of these batteries in the U.S. increased to 95%. So GM Volt Silver must be regarded as Sora distracting fake, in an era when the public and the Internet was not yet than a real technological achievement, because even in 2013, lobbyists from Detroit argued that the market EV in the United States simply does not exist and do not understate the rate of flow of conventional fuel for pickups and SUVs. Surprising – over the last 30 years, the Detroit survives only through those categories of cars and lose it to the "Big three" is equivalent to the return of crisis in the 1980s, when they seriously pushed the manufacturers of the smaller countries overseas..