Powering the Cruze in North America will be brand new turbocharged four-cylinder lineup called the ‘Family Zero’ range. GM is planning to use its Chevrolet brand to spearhead the introduction of the new engine family, which is expected to appear in the rest of the carmaker’s brands.

http://www.motorauthority.com/cars/c...dical-changes/

 

OMFG... a 1.0L engine in a midsize vehicle in 2010!!! K/A GM!

Let's see... who was it that was saying something about V8s and 5.8L engines staying around for a while in another thread?

I'll tell you guys this much... I see the 30+ old-school, rare V8 engines I have stored in my building going up in value like crazy in the next 10 years. Cobra Jets, Thunderbird Specials, Quadrajets, etc. There all aging like fine wine.

I also see the aftermarket doing very well for those of us who can not stand the thought of anything other than a V8 in our Camaro or Mustang.

Put me down for this quote...
There WILL be a day when the Mustang and Camaro do not offer a V8 from the factory. The business case is going to be the cause of it - not "power levels" or "CAFE standards". When 10-million of these little pocket-rocket engines dominate the platforms and are so wide-spread, it will be tough to make a case for developing, tooling for, building, and using a V8 in a passenger car at all (and don't forget the framework and motor mounts that must go into the car to hold the V8 versus a 300-lb 1.0L engine - I'm thinking they'll be a little different from each other). And don't look to trucks for the answer because I still think you will see them go to direct diesel power and then to diesel/electric like locomotives are now. And I don't want either of those in my ponycar either.


PS - that's HALF of a 2-Liter bottle...

 

Gimme a, ah, double bacon cheeseburger, gimme a, ha pie, apple, and gimme a ah, liter of cola...

Cool stuff. Hope they're not as gutless as my S-10

 

As I dug on that site, it mentioned that the Volt will get 1.4L engine (instead of the 1.0L), and will be used as a backup to drive the car, instead of charging the batteries.

This means that the engine will have a direct connection to the wheels.

I'm wondering what the MPG figures will be for this change.

 

Actually the back-up engine recharges the batteries which power the electric motors, which power the wheels. The ICE does not have a direct connection to the wheels.

 

That's what the 1.0L engine was supposed to do. Now, they're claiming that the 1.4L will replace the 1.0L engine, and it will in fact be able to drive the wheels. It will not be recharging the batteries.

That quote was taken from MotorTrend.

 

Then what's the point of the Volt?

 

1.0L was a 3cyl. 1.4L is a 4 cyl. They are using a 4 cyl. now because it is more balanced and smoother. (or so I've read) The gas engine will not drive the wheels no matter what MotorTrend says.

 

It doesn't say that. First, Motor Authority are misinterpreting what the Motor Trend blog says. Specifically, it says:

It's rumored that the Volt, initially displayed with a 1.0-liter four to be used as a generator for its plug-in electric lithium-ion battery power motor, will instead use a 1.4-liter engine as a sufficiently powerful backup to the all-electric drive. GM has said the electric drivetrain is good for running up to 40 miles on a full charge.

Nowhere does that say that it's going to have a full gas drivetrain. I just think that "backup" in this case is confusing. It's not a backup, it's essentially a battery charger.

Second, the car rags were all saying that Camaro base engine was going to be the 3.5 like a month ago. Everyone here knew they were wrong, but they said it anyway.

GM is not going to change the way E-Flex works at this point in the game. They have too much riding on it.

 

I did a little extra research and that's a straight misunderstanding on Auto Authority's part:

The premise of the engine - to serve merely as a range extender for an otherwise electric car - will stay the same when the Volt reaches production, but engineers added the extra cylinder in the pursuit of finesse and fuel economy.

http://blogs.automobilemag.com/62719...der/index.html

(essentially what Z28X said above)

Last week GM's Larry Nitz identified the normally aspirated 1.4L will be used to drive the range extender in the Chevy Volt ER-EV.

http://www.autobloggreen.com/2008/07...ange-extender/

E-Flex cars like the Volt are electrically driven, with the internal combustion engine starting up only when the battery state of charge drops below a certain threshold. Nitz tells GFF "the objective is to keep the engine off and when the engine comes on, you don't want to know it's on. You want it really smooth and a four cylinder is smoother than a three."

http://greenfuelsforecast.com/Articl...?articleID=550

I realize these are just blog posts as well, but since the last two quotes are directly from Larry Nitz, GM Director, Hybrid Powertrain Engineering, I'm assuming nothing has changed in the configuration other than the displacement of the range extender.

 

Why does the Volt need such a big engine to charge the battery?
Couldn't they do it with a Briggs 5-8 HP single cylinder engine, like on a generator?
It may not be very quiet, but it would probably get the job done and take up a whole lot less space.

 

Because once the batteries are depleted to the point of needing to be charged, you need a gasoline engine that can produce at least enough output to propel the vehicle and at least maintain the charge of the batteries.

If the car needs 35 hp just to cruise down the highway (let alone any uphills or accels it needs), then an engine only making 5 hp won't provide enough to do any charging. The batteries will keep on draining all the way down to nothing; they'll just do it a tiny bit slower than they would with no engine at all.

If the 5 hp engine were only used to charge the batteries while the car isn't being driven, then it could work. Of course, that is the situation in which the car should be plugged in.

 

I dont know about that. Our boat has twin 1.0L engines, each making 160hp. I'm sure they make about zero torque, though.

 

That's a great explanation!!!

 

"I don't want a large Farva. I want a G** damn liter o' cola."