When AutoblogGreen visited Bob Lutz's house for the Vectrix electric scooter delivery this week, GM's product development chief Bob Lutz gave us some pretty candid information about the Chevy Volt's progress. Take this tidbit, when Sam asked Lutz if GM has vehicles running with both the CPI (i.e., LG Chem) and the A123/Conti packs?

"No. We're concentrating on one, but I'm not going to tell you who that is. They're both excellent battery companies, and they both have good companies for integration, but we feel that at this point we have a lower risk with one company than the other." (click here and watch the video at min. 3 to hear Lutz say this).

OK, put that information together with this article in the Guardian UK that focuses on the status of LG Chem. Buried towards the bottom is this line:

"Also, one of its [LG Chem's] packs powered a test or 'mule' version of the Volt that GM engineers have created from a modified Chevy Malibu and showed off last month for GM product chief Bob Lutz."

Now, just because the battery was in the Volt mule a month ago doesn't mean that it's the one that's still in there today and, as we remember, it wasn't too long ago that Conti was saying they have a "good chance" at winning the Volt contract. Nothing is decided at this point (unless you're on the Volt team, perhaps), but we'll keep watching.

[Source: Guardian UK]

In commenting on the battle royal taking place on the testing benches at GM between two contending battery suppliers, "Maximum" Bob Lutz said Tuesday it was a "horse race. An apt analogy in a sense because the two teams, Continental Automotive Systems, using cells from A123 Systems Inc., and Compact Power Inc. who are using cells developed by its parent, LG Chem seem to be neck and neck in performance. No one has stumbled as the two sprint down the final stretch to the, oh, what's that? The finish line has been moved? O rly?

Apparently, GM feels the need to hold off on making the final battery supplier decision, that had been announced for April, as it continues to weigh the pros and cons of each product and conduct more testing. In light of the postponement of mule day, I suspect there is something they aren't telling us. Regardless of the exact timing of the conclusion of this contest, we are now taking bets in the comments section.

[Source: CNN Money]

The Mercedes-Benz S400 BlueHybrid that was announced Friday, will likely be the first production lithium ion hybrid in the world. The important milestone here is the lithium ion battery chemistry, something that Reuters is giving us more information about. The S-class' li-ion cell will be supplied by Continental, which the tea leaves kind of predicted a few months ago. The S400 installs could give the battery maker a potential head start in its effort to beat Korea's LG Chem to produce the batteries for the Chevy Volt. A GM spokesperson told Reuters that both LG and Conti's batteries look encouraging to the automaker, so the advantage of being first on the market may not be as powerful as I suspect.

[Source: Reuters]

During the Electric Drive Vehicle Symposium (EVS23) held this past week in Anaheim CA, attendees got the first public glimpse at the first prototype battery pack for the Chevy Volt. GM's Jon Lauckner, VP for Global Program Management gave a presentation at the conference that Matt Kelly from NextGear captured on video. Most of the presentation was a repeat of the standard one GM executives have been giving for the past year on how much energy the world uses and how much that amount will increase over the next two decades as well as explaining the basic premise behind the E-Flex architecture. If you haven't seen the presentation before, it's worth watching. However, the last five minutes include the latest updates on the Volt development program. As we know the first prototype pack arrived at GM's labs about six weeks ago and a couple of Lauckner's slides show photos of the pack on the bench being tested. AutoblogGreen has spoken to Jon Lauckner on numerous occasions over the past year, such as the conversation we had the Management Briefing Seminar last August. You can watch the whole EVS23 presentation after the jump.

[Source: NextGear]