DETROIT — In a move counter to the actions of most of the world's automakers, Chrysler Group is shutting down its hybrid-car development team, ENVI. The program had been founded by Chrysler's previous owner, Cerberus Capital Management, and the plug has been pulled by Fiat, which now owns a controlling stake in the U.S. automaker and has just announced a major reorganization of the company.
The ENVI division was at work in-house on a test fleet of 220 hybrid trucks and minivans and had received some $70 million in U.S. Department of Energy funds just last August, Reuters reported. Chrysler had said it would have its first electric vehicle in dealerships next year, with two to follow shortly thereafter, and at the 2009 Detroit Auto Show in January had said it would have a full lineup of battery-electric vehicles out — and a half-million on the roads — by 2013. Among them was to be an all-electric sports car built on a Lotus platform called the Dodge Circuit.
Instead, Fiat chief Sergio Marchionne said he expects Chrysler to have only about 60,000 electric vehicles, or "1-2 percent" of its output, by 2014, citing battery storage as what he believes to be a roadblock to the vehicles' acceptance. According to the five-year plan just announced for Chrysler, the first large-scale commercial hybrid rollout won't come until 2015.
The $70 million in government money will help Chrysler bring out a 100-vehicle test fleet of plug-in hybrid Dodge Ram and Chrysler Town & Country vehicles in 2011, although no longer as the centerpiece of the previous aggressive rollout strategy.
In place of EVs, Chrysler reportedly will rely on Fiat's new small engines and other technology to help it market small Chrysler vehicles in the U.S. market and lower its overall fuel-economy and emissions numbers. Among the products cited are the Fiat dual dry-clutch transmission and its Start & Stop technology. Nearly half of all Chrysler products will be Fiat-powered by 2014, including the highly efficient Fiat Multiair engine that was introduced in 2007.
Inside Line says: Fiat makes a tough call that seems to face the facts about just how troubled things are at Chrysler. — Laura Sky Brown, Correspondent
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kbentley says:
11:11 AM, 12/09/2009
Two of Chryslers biggest problems were (a) Poor Quality Control and (b) Lagging Technology; So who buys them??
FIAT!
Why did Americans stop buying FIAT products in the 70's and 80's?? Bad Quality Control and Technology!!
The perfect choice (as far as Quality and Technology as concerned) would have been Honda, but I guess Honda isn't Big enough to deal with Chryslers debt.
I think FIAT sees Chrysler as ready made FIAT dealerships with JEEP thrown in as a Bonus!!!!
gforce2002 says:
02:58 PM, 11/10/2009
The "hybrid program is off" is not quite true and is (I hope not purposely) misleading. The electric development efforts are being rolled into the normal product development staff rather than being a separate unit.