Gallery: Peek Inside the Chevrolet Volt Factory
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DETROIT — General Motors always said we'd get the Chevrolet Volt in 2010, and damned if it didn't pull it off. After spending three years and hundreds of million of dollars developing the innovative plug-in car, GM starts cranking them out this month. The first [Chevrolet Volts](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/autopia/tag/chevrolet-volt/) headed for showrooms are due to roll out of Detroit-Hamtramck Assembly Center any day now. GM's being coy about when it officially flips the switch at D-Ham, but the company confirmed that full-scale production begins this month. The first Volts are slated for delivery in December. The Volt, and the Nissan Leaf, are at the vanguard of the [coming wave of cars with cords](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/autopia/2010/11/ev-days-are-here-again/). As such, it is a milestone for GM and the [electrification of the automobile](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/autopia/2010/11/11-seminal-electric-vehicles/). We spent some time at D-Ham watching the General build pre-production "pilot" cars used to calibrate the line and work out any kinks in the assembly process. None of those cars can be sold to the public, but they are identical to the Volts you'll see on the road. __Above:__ It all starts with a steel unibody assembled by robots using body panels stamped at GM factories in Flint and Lansing. There are more than 900 robots in the body shop at D-Ham, and they can make 285 welds in 14 seconds. Volts roll down an assembly line that stretches 24 miles through a factory that covers 3.6 million square feet. (That's about 62 football fields, including end zones.) The cars are built alongside Cadillac DTS and Buick Lucerne sedans in a factory that employs 1,048 people. It built 35,764 cars last year. GM plans to build 10,000 Chevrolet Volts in 2011, and they'll all come out of D-Ham. *Photo: Jim Merithew/Wired.com*
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It takes more than 1,500 components — many of them with many hundred constituent parts — to build a Volt, and they arrive at D-Ham from around the world. Here, Walter Bogan, a 15-year GM employee, removes the driver's door from a Volt to facilitate installation of the charging port, dashboard and interior. While it might seem odd to install all of the doors only to remove two of them farther down the line, it's more efficient. Once the body is assembled by the robots, it goes through the paint shop in one piece. Then the front doors are removed to make it easier to install the interior without dinging anything. *Photo: Jim Merithew/Wired.com*
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The instrument panel is installed as a single piece that contains the gauges, the center stack with stereo and HVAC controls, the steering column and the pedal assembly. It slides into the car on a robotic arm — operated here by Walter Bogan — with one person on each side to bolt it down. *Photo: Jim Merithew/Wired.com*
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GM calls the Volt a "range-extended electric vehicle," but strictly speaking [it is a plug-in hybrid](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/autopia/2010/10/the-chevrolet-volt-isnt-a-true-ev/), because it uses two sources of energy. A 16-kilowatt-hour battery provides a [range of 25 to 50 miles](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/autopia/2010/09/chevrolet-volt-range-25-to-50-miles/). Beyond that, a 1.4-liter gasoline engine drives a 53-kilowatt generator that keeps the electric motor running. (The engine can, under very specific circumstances, [assist the motor](http://www.motortrend.com/features/editorial/1010_unbolting_the_chevy_volt_to_see_how_it_ticks/index.html).) A plug-in car requires someplace to plug it in, of course, and the Volt's charge port is just in front of the driver's door. That's Andrew Farris, a 12-year GM employee, installing one. *Photo: Jim Merithew/Wired.com*
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Everything on a car is designed by someone, and Rayleen Hustyi designed the charge port on the Volt. She's a mechanical engineer, and it was her job to package the plug that keeps the car juiced. Here, she's checking the clearance of a port Farris installed. Packaging a plug is tougher than you might think. The port, and the door that covers it, must be tough enough to stand up to all the plugging and unplugging Volt owners will do. And it had to be small enough to fit into the confines of the front quarter panel, which GM determined was the most convenient place to put it. "A lot of thought goes into something like this," said Hustyi, who's been with GM nine years. "It's much more complex than it looks." *Photo: Jim Merithew/Wired.com*
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The cars take to the air for the installation of the battery, drivetrain and other components, all of which are installed from the bottom. All of the components follow the car down the line on an automated cart (seen on the left in the photo above), so everything the line workers need to install is readily at hand. *Photo: Jim Merithew/Wired.com*
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General Motors assembles the 16-kilowatt lithium-ion battery packs at the [Brownstown Battery Pack Assembly Plant](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/autopia/2010/01/chevrolet-volt-battery-production/) using cells imported from Korea. GM spent five months and $43 million retooling the 160,000-square-foot plant to build the packs, which weigh 400 pounds. The pack is 5 feet long and 33 inches wide. Each uses 288 cells about the size of a license plate. Packs contains about 4 pounds of lithium. It takes about three hours to build one pack, and about two-thirds of the work is automated. "There are hundreds of parts in each pack, and we assemble them all," said Nancy Laubenthall, manager of the Brownstown plant. *Photo: Jim Merithew/Wired.com*
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You don't want your employees trying to lift a 400-pound pack over their heads, so GM uses mechanical lifts to position the packs in the Volt. The cells are grouped in three modules — each module has a different number of cells — mounted on a steel plate and protected by a thick plastic cover wrapped with protective foil. Packs are cooled with ethylene glycol (aka antifreeze) in a dedicated cooling system. *Photo: Jim Merithew/Wired.com*
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Two pins on the lift fit into two receivers on the car, ensuring the battery is precisely installed. Two dozen bolts secure everything in place. That's Steve Johnson, who's been with GM for four years, double-checking the work. *Photo: Jim Merithew/Wired.com*
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The 1.4-liter, four-cylinder engine in the Volt is mated to a 53-kilowatt generator that provides juice to the electric motor when the battery runs down. The engine is built at the Flint Engine South factory and trucked to D-Ham, where the generator is attached. The engine uses a cast iron block and an aluminum cylinder head with cast crankshaft, pistons and connecting rods. The engine weighs 240 pounds and takes about 3.5 hours to build. GM invested $202 million to retool Flint Engine South to build engines for the Chevrolet Volt and [Chevrolet Cruze](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/autopia/2009/12/chevrolet-cruzes-to-40-mpg/). The factory will crank out 400 engines a day to start, and slowly ramp up to 800 per day. *Photo: Jim Merithew/Wired.com*
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Body and drivetrain come together in a process called "body marriage." The engine-generator is lowered onto an automated cart containing the front subframe and all of the drivetrain components. The cart keeps all of the parts — front and rear suspension, wheel hub and brake assemblies and so forth — close at hand as the vehicle moves down the line. Once the engine is secured to the subframe, it is installed in the body. Other components follow as the car rolls down the line. *Photo: Jim Merithew/Wired.com*
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Drivetrains on the line, awaiting bodies. *Photo: Jim Merithew/Wired.com*
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Every car is thoroughly checked for fit and finish before leaving the factory. Panel gaps are measured, the hood, trunk and doors are opened and closed repeatedly, and everything gets a once-over to make sure it works. Minor issues are corrected with the judicious application of a rubber mallet. Anything more serious is sent back to the body shop. *Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com*
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Every car is inspected for scratches and other blemishes. Bright lights and mirrors make the job easier. Minor imperfections are touched up on the line. Anything more involved is sent to the body shop. *Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com*
