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.”

Dodge Circuit

The evolution of the Dodge EV has finally arrived.  The Dodge Circuit is everything the Dodge EV was and more.  Boasting a premium sound system, power windows/doors, cruise control, leather seats, leather wrapped steering wheel - everything you would expect from a high performance sportscar.

“The exterior styling of the Dodge Circuit EV mates bold Dodge styling to the no-compromise performance attributes of an all-electric performance sports car,” said Ralph Gilles, Vice President – Design, Chrysler LLC. “The Dodge Circuit EV offers an extremely fun-to-drive, expressive sports car without fuel consumption and with virtually no impact on the environment.”

The Circuit utilizes a very simple powertrain to get it moving: the electric motor, battery system, and the controller that controls the flow of energy.  The motor is a 200kW (268 HP) motor that’ll propel the Circuit from 0-60 in just under 5 seconds.   It does the 1/4 mile in just 13 seconds and has a top speed of over 120 miles per hour.

The battery pack on the Circuit provides 150 to 200 miles of zero emission driving before needing to be recharged.  That’s more than three times the average daily commute.  The Circuit can be recharged by plugging into any standard 110 volt household outlet, it can also be plugged into a standard 220 volt appliance outlet to cut the recharge time in half.

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.

I believe that being energy independent is not only something we should strive to do for our economic well being, but it should be considered a national security issue as well.  One of the fastest ways we can do this is through the use of electric cars.  I don’t feel that they’re ready to completely replace the ICE powered cars, but given another generation or two of batteries or cheap hydrolisis to create hydrogen for fuel cell powered cars and they will be.  Barring and apocalyptic event we’ll probably be there in 20 years give or take a few.  In the mean time we need to get as far along the electric car path as we can so that when the time comes we’ll be ready to take advantage of the break through.

This blog is devoted to electric cars in general, but more specifically the ENVI division of Chrysler (hence the name of the blog).  I chose ENVI because I think it’s the easiest way for us to get to where we need to be in 20 years.  GM is doing a great thing with the Volt, but it’s very costly for them.  They are making a whole new car from the ground up, including reengineering the components to use the least amount of electricity they can so that the car can go further on the battery pack provided.  That’s 100% custom car, and eventually it’ll be profitable, but not until GM sells a million or so of the thing.

The ENVI division of Chrysler is taking a different approach.  Chrysler is taking currently made vehicles and retrofitting them with an electric drivetrain (the Dodge EV is all new, but it sits on a Lotus Europa frame with new body panels - like the Tesla Roadster - so the costs will be minimal).  Does this mean that the cars aren’t as efficient as they could be?  After all they aren’t optimized for aerodynamics and the components aren’t engineered to use less electricity.

The answer is of course absolutely the ENVI vehicles won’t be as efficient as the Chevy Volt.  That means that they’ll need larger battery packs to go the same 40 miles.  But as far as I can tell that’s the only downside.  Sure you’ll pay for a bigger battery pack, but you’ll also pay less money for more vehicle.  The Chrysler Minivan EV is a simple matter of filling up the underfloor storage with batteries and putting and electric motor under the hood.  The cost of a normal Chrysler Town and Country can aready get up into the 35-40k range, my estimate is that the EV Town and Country will be just a few thousand more.

The best part is that Chrysler won’t have to lose money on every EV sold.  I applaud GM and Tesla for making electric cars as efficiently as they can, but they can’t make them if they’re not around…

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

We all know that the Dodge EV is based on a Lotus Europa.  The yellow car with black stipes down the hood is what we were introduced too.  However, none of us thought that it was a Dodge when we looked at it.  The production car is going to get a face lift, probably something that looks more like the Viper than the Lotus it looks like now.

The spy shots were taken at night, Chrysler is being very secretive and sneaky with testing their new EV.  They don’t want to let the cat out of the bag on this one just yet.  The new face is distinctly Dodge, however, we don’t quite know yet what the rest of the body will look like.

Although Chrysler has not yet said which EV it will make first (they only said that one of them will be produced in 2010, the others will, but not until later), there’s a good chance that it’ll be the Dodge EV.  They already have it up and running and the speed at which it’s received a new body indicates that they’re going to be pushing this one out the door sooner than later.

Assuming that Chrysler gets those auto loans the Dodge EV would hit the lots in late 2010.

Ever since chrysler unveiled the three production intent electric vehicles to the public the Dodge EV has been compared to either the Dodge Viper or the Tesla Roadster.  Both comparisons are appropriate since all three vehicles are high performance cars.  The Viper has incredible horsepower and 0-60 times, it is also a sports car that only seats two people.  It’s also a Dodge, but the comparisons between the Viper and the EV don’t go much further than that.  The EV really has a lot more in common with the Tesla Roadster.

The Tesla Roadster is built on top of a Lotus Elise.  Tesla imports the Elise and then modifies to a great extent to make the Roadster.  As an all electric car it uses no gas and almost no oil during every day use.  It also has a lot fewer moving parts so there’s less chance of something going wrong.  The Roadster has a battery pack that will give it a 250 mile range and can recharge overnight.

The Dodge EV is built on top of a Lotus Europa.  Dodge imports the Europa and then modifies it to make the all electric Dodge EV.  It is very similar to the Roadster in the manner in how it drives, acceleration, braking, handling, etc.  According to Dodge the battery pack will let you go 200 miles before needing a recharge, 50 miles less than the Roadster.

We should also note the biggest difference is that the Roadster is already in production.  Tesla has delivered 70 of them so far and has over 1200 people on the waiting list.  Right now they can produce 10 a week but that is expected to double in 2009.  Notably Jay Leno, George Clooney, and the Governator have all bought a Roadster.

Assuming Chrysler makes it through the next 18 months (big assumption right now) the Dodge EV could very well be their first production vehicle.  Chrysler intends to have one in production by the end of 2010.  The low volume and prebuilt chassis make the Dodge EV a prime suspect for the first ENVI production vehicle.  My guess at the price would be in the 90k range, undercutting Tesla by 20 thousand.

Competition is good, but I hope that the Dodge EV doesn’t hurt Tesla’s sales.  They are, after all, the first new American car company in a long time and they’re building cars that will help us get off of oil.  Good luck to both.

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

When Chrysler reveiled their three ENVI vehicles a few weeks ago we found that one of them was an all electric sports car for Dodge.  Likely a replacement for the Viper (Chrysler is looking to sell the Viper name for some cash, the new CAFE standards preclude Chrysler from making the Viper in a few years).  The Dodge EV with it’s batteries would have a range of over 150 miles, but that’s not very practical for every day buyers.  Then again, a Viper isn’t that practical either.

The other two EVs are extended range electric vehicles (that’s GMs term for it).  They use batteries for the first 40 miles to power an electric motor that drives the wheels and then a gas engine switches on to extend the range.  The Chevy Volt does the exact same with it’s engine and motor.  The question has been, does the gas engine bypass the batteries like the Volt does, or does it run a generator that recharges the batteries so that the batteries will always power the electric motor.

“The gas engine recharges the battery a little bit,” said Cole Quinnell, a Chrysler spokesman. “But that’s just excess and overflow, not the central intent. It’s more efficient for the gas motor to drive the wheels, not recharge the batteries. The cost to recharge the battery by running the generator is eight times the cost of taking it home and plugging it in.”

Along with the actual dollar cost of using gas to recharge the batteries the longevity of the battery pack is a consideration for this decision.  Rechargeable batteries have a lifespan of only so many charges.  Having the gas engine constantly recharge the battery pack would shorten the life of the batteries significantly.