GM looks to the future with fuel-efficient designs

By Don Shilling

A former Poland resident, director of design for E-Flex systems, is developing electric vehicles.

DETROIT — General Motors is expanding its line of electric cars, and a Mahoning Valley resident is playing a key role.

Bob Boniface, formerly of Poland, designed GM’s upcoming electric car — the Chevrolet Volt — and will lead the design on others.

GM unveiled what might be its next electric car Sunday at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit — the Cadillac Converj concept.

Boniface, GM’s director of design for E-Flex systems, said the production version of that car will come from his studio if the project goes forward. He said GM definitely will be offering more than one electric car.

“We’d be foolish if we included this on only a single car platform,” he said.

GM plans to have the Volt in dealer showrooms by November 2010 and then other electric models “will come in rapid succession,” said Boniface, the son of Dr. Raymond and Jacquelyn Boniface. They will include different brands and different categories, he said.

Building marketable electric cars will show that GM has a future despite its current financial problems, said Bob Lutz, GM vice chairman for global product development.

“Building products like these is the only way to fight the misconceptions about our products,” he said.

Fighting misconceptions was a key part of GM’s high-energy press conference.

New models — including the Volt and Chevrolet Cruze — were driven down a long runway that was lined with 600 cheering GM employees and retirees. They held signs that said “Here to Stay” and “Charged Up” and chanted “100 more years” and “We are GM.”

Rick Wagoner, GM chief executive, said the automaker will go into the future with “smaller, smarter and more fuel-efficient cars.”

“Today marks a new beginning for General Motors as we dramatically accelerate our restructuring,” he said.

Among the new product announcements were the Cadillac Converj concept; the Chevrolet Spark, a new microcar coming to the U.S. in 2011; and the Chevrolet Orlando crossover vehicle, also coming to the market that same year.

Lutz said future electric vehicles like the Volt are being designed to go 40 miles on battery power alone. Anyone who is using the car for short trips could drive the car without ever having to use gasoline, he said.

The battery can be charged at home in the garage using a standard outlet.

Boniface said test vehicles are achieving 40 miles without using gas, but distances in the real world will depend on how a driver operates the car and how much heating and cooling is used. The heater and air conditioner draw from the battery and will reduce mileage, he said.

Boniface said designs call for a gasoline engine to get 50 mpg once the battery is depleted.

He said he is coming to the Mahoning Valley in March for a Regional Chamber event and is trying to arrange to have a Volt test car there.

Boniface noted that he and his team had to change the design of the concept version of the Volt in order to meet GM’s fuel-efficiency goals.

The original design was for an athletic-looking muscle car that happened to have an electric motor. Boniface said those designs were visionary and were done without the aid of wind tunnels.

The production version of the car had to have a more aerodynamic design, he said. The production design features a rounded look with smooth lines so that the air will hug the car as it moves down the road and create as little turbulence as possible, he said.

shilling@vindy.com