Chrysler will showcase its electric vehicle future at the 79th International Motor Show in Geneva on March 3, with the European premieres of the Chrysler 200C EV concept vehicle and Dodge Circuit EV prototype.

Chrysler recently unveiled these two vehicles—along with the new Jeep Patriot EV, the updated Chrysler Town & Country EV and the updated Jeep Wrangler Unlimited EV—reinforcing a commitment to developing and bringing to market a broad array of advanced electric vehicles for the Chrysler, Jeep and Dodge brands.

“Our goal is to provide creative solutions to the challenges that our customers face around the globe,” Michael Manley, Executive Vice President—International Sales and Global Product Planning Operations, said. “We’ve made electric vehicles the primary path to developing clean vehicles for all our product lines. We will produce at least one of these vehicles for North American markets in 2010 and for European markets after 2010.”

Fiat, the maker of the Cinquecento car, will pay no cash for its stake or commit any funding in the future. Chrysler’s majority owner, private-equity group Cerberus Capital Management, will see its 80% stake in the group diluted.

“The partnership would also provide a return on investment for the American taxpayer by securing the long-term viability of Chrysler brands in the marketplace, sustaining future product and technology development for our country and building renewed consumer confidence, while preserving American jobs,” he said.

200C

A little smaller than the current Chrysler 300, this concept vehicle is the likely successor to the Seabring.  The theme for the 200C is connectivity.  The 200C has connections for just about everything you can think of.

“What makes the Chrysler 200C EV concept even more meaningful is the use of technology that will make traveling and managing one’s life an absolute pleasure,” Klegon added. “The 200C EV concept is a connectivity portal to the world outside, creating a rewarding relationship between driver and automobile. The result is a driving experience that celebrates the human instinct to be connected to our world.”

The design of the 200C is obviously more organic than the straight lines that cut through the air on the Chrysler 300.  The the curved body allows for better aerodynamic flow over the car resulting in better gas mileage or longer battery life.

Based on a shortened version (LY platform?) of the current rear wheel drive chrysler vehicles, the 200C provides a fun, powerful, and sporty ride.  The electric drive system similar to that in the Jeep EV and Chrysler EV allows the 200C to drive 40 silent miles on electric power alone.  After that a small gasoline engine starts up to provide extended range.

Chrysler LLC’s chief says the automaker has received an initial $4 billion loan from the U.S. Treasury Department.

Chief Executive Bob Nardelli said Friday night in a release that the Auburn Hills, Mich.-based company’s talks with the federal government about the bridge loan have been completed.

Nardelli says the initial loan will allow Chrysler to continue its restructuring and pursue “our vision to build the fuel-efficient, high-quality cars and trucks people want to buy, will enjoy driving and will want to buy again.”

While many believe that Chrysler won’t be around in a couple of years, Chrysler is moving ahead with plans to electrify the automobile. And, in a CNN piece, Chrysler took a poke at the Chevy Volt and claimed that it wouldn’t be a one trick pony, or “one electric vehicle company.”

Thus, Chrysler’s big EV plans are to forgo aerodynamics, weight and fancy designs. Instead, Chrysler will begin its EV program by converting traditional Chrysler vehicles into electric vehicles, while achieving the same kinds of performance as a Volt - all at a cheaper cost to the automaker and to consumers.

So, why didn’t GM think of that?

Find the answer at the link

With lawmakers drawing closer to a loan deal to save Chrysler and General Motors, Chrysler CEO Bob Nardelli told workers this morning that he is “very encouraged by developments over the weekend.”

“While the situation in Washington remains dynamic, I am very encouraged by the developments over the weekend and the growing interest shown by Congress and the administration to provide needed financial assistance to the three Detroit automakers,” he said in a memo to employees obtained by the Free Press.

He cautioned that “this process is far from over.”

Chrysler has asked for $7 billion by the end of the month and has warned that without immediate help its liquidity could fall below the level necessary to sustain the company through the first three months of 2009.

Source: Freep

Chrysler LLC’s three advanced production-intent electric vehicle prototype vehicles are headed to California, where they will make their worldwide auto show debut at the 2008 Los Angeles Auto Show.

The vehicles — the Dodge EV, Jeep(R) EV and Chrysler EV — will be on display during press days (Nov. 19-20), and throughout the show’s public days (Nov. 21-30). Frank Klegon, Executive Vice President - Product Development, Chrysler LLC, will attend the show tomorrow to discuss the vehicles with journalists.

Chrysler recently announced that at least one of these models will be produced in 2010 for consumers in North American markets, and European markets after 2010. Additionally, the Company will have close to one hundred electric vehicles on the road in government, business and development fleets in 2009.

Chrysler is well into the development of advanced production-intent electric vehicles, and will apply its electric-drive technology to its front-wheel-drive, rear-wheel-drive and body-on-frame four-wheel-drive platforms in the next several years.

“We have a social responsibility to our consumers to deliver environmentally friendly, fuel efficient, advanced electric vehicles, and our intention is to meet that responsibility quickly and more broadly than any other automobile manufacturer,” said Bob Nardelli, Chairman and CEO - Chrysler LLC. “The introduction of the Chrysler, Jeep and Dodge electric vehicles provides a glimpse of the very near future, and demonstrates that we are serious and well along in the development of bringing electric vehicles to market.”

Electric Vehicle Technology

Chrysler’s Electric Vehicles utilize just three primary components. These include an electric motor to drive the wheels, an advanced lithium-ion battery system to power the electric-drive motor, and a controller that manages energy flow. The electric-drive system is being developed for front-wheel-drive, rear-wheel-drive, and body-on-frame four-wheel-drive vehicle applications.

Source

chrysler ev

A while back we reported that the Dodge EV had a good chance of being the vehicle that Chrysler puts into production in 2010.  Eventually all three will be in production, but only one of them will get there in 2010, the others will be a bit further off.  We’re now seeing reports that the minivan could be the first EV into production.  And the more we think about it the more it makes perfect sense.

“We’ve certainly got the possibility of electrifying our vehicles now,” said Reid Bigland, president of Chrysler Canada Inc. “It’s not pie-in-the-sky.”

The only competition for the minivan ev would be the Chevy Volt, a four seater car.  If the Chrysler EV can get the same 40 miles without using any gas, and if it will get decent mileage while using gas (Chevy claims that the Volt will get 50 on gas), the minivan could steal a few customers of the Volt and a few that were waiting for a bigger vehicle. 

There are plenty of people that would like to get something like the Volt but they either have too big a family or they need to haul too much stuff around on a regular basis for the Volt to be practical for them.  The Chrysler EV is the perfect solution for them.  They get 40 miles of gas free driving and pretty good (great for a minivan) mileage after that. 

The other reason for the Chrysler EV to be the first is the simplicity of it.  The Chrysler Town and Country already has a lot of storage in the middle of the vehicle for the stow and go seating.  If the owner opts for swivel and go instead of the stow and go that storage space isn’t used for the seats (since the swivel and go can’t fold into the floor), it’s just storage.  The batteries needed to make the Chrysler EV will go there, so the owner will get the swivel and go seats but they lose the storage capacity.  A small price to pay for the ability to use no gas.

“We didn’t have to do much tear-up,” Quigley says of the conversion process: engineers simply filled the second-row seat tubs with batteries intead of foldaway seats, and put Swivel ‘N Go seats in the van instead.

The location of the storage is optimal for the batteries.  It’s low to the ground and in the middle of the vehicle.  Nothing needs to be done to tune the suspension for handling with the extra 400ish pounds of weight.  Since it’s under the body of the vehicle is should also be easier to keep the batteries cool.

Once you put the batteries in all you have to do is hook up an electric motor to them, provide a small 4 cylinder engine to power it when the batteries are low and you have yourself and EV.  Of course it’s not that simple, some of the components in the EV need to be redesigned, extensive testing needs to be done to make sure that the EV is safe and reliable.  But it’s a lot easier and quicker to do the minivan than it would be to do the Wrangler or the Dodge EV.

A few days ago the leaders of the three Detroit automakers sat down with Democratic leaders to discuss their dire situation.  It seems that they’ve done what they intended to do.  The leaders sent a letter to the treasury asking it to use part of the 700 billion bailout for financial institutions to help out GM/Ford/Chrysler.  However, given that GM has already asked the treasury and been told no, I doubt that this will work.  Still, it means that congress will probably do something, whether it be now or when Obama takes office.  The transcript of the letter is below:

Dear Secretary Paulson:

We are writing to request that you review the feasibility of invoking the authority Congress provided you under the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 (EESA) for the purpose of providing temporary assistance to the automobile industry during the current financial crisis. Under EESA, Congress granted you broad discretion to purchase, or make commitments to purchase, financial instruments you determine necessary to restore financial market stability. A healthy automobile manufacturing sector is essential to the restoration of financial market stability, the overall health of our economy, and the livelihood of the automobile sector’s workforce.

The economic downturn and the crisis in our financial markets further imperiled our domestic automobile industry and its workforce. On Thursday, we separately met with the leaders of the automobile industry, and its top union representative, to discuss the financial challenges confronting the industry and its workforce, and possible actions to address these challenges. We left the meetings convinced that our nation’s automobile industry - the heart of our manufacturing sector - and the jobs of tens of thousands of American workers are at risk. Friday’s news of the automobile industry’s record low sales figures only reaffirm the need for urgent action.

Were you to determine that the automobile industry is eligible for assistance under EESA, we would urge you to impose strong conditions on such assistance in order to protect taxpayers and maximize the potential for the industry’s recovery. An automobile industry that is forward-looking and focused on ingenuity, competitiveness, and the creation of green jobs for the future is essential to its long-term viability. Other taxpayer protections should mirror those required of financial institutions currently participating in the Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP), such as limits on executive compensation and equity stakes to provide taxpayers a return on their investment upon the industry’s recovery. Any assistance to the automobile industry should reflect the principles contained in EESA that guard against the need to recoup costs to the taxpayers.

We must safeguard the interests of American taxpayers, protect the hundreds of thousands of automobile workers and retirees, stop the erosion of our manufacturing base, and bolster our economy. It is our hope that the actions that Congress has taken, and that the Administration may take, will restore the preeminence of our domestic manufacturing industry so that it can emerge as a global, competitive leader in fuel efficiency and in new and path-breaking energy-efficient technologies that protect our environment. We appreciate your serious consideration of this request, and look forward to your response.

Best regards,

NANCY PELOSI       HARRY REID
Speaker of the       House Senate Majority Leader

Source: AP