Chrysler 5-Year Plan Thought To Include an EV Along With Fuel-Efficient Small Cars

Dodge Zeo8 concept shown at Detroit Auto Show last year could be basis for a new EV in revised Chrysler product lineup under post-bankruptcy recovery plan.

If there's anything certain about Chrysler's new 5-year product plan, to be unveiled in a lengthy conference tomorrow, it is that small cars, advanced technology gas engines and at least one electric vehicle all are likely to figure into the automaker's future.

The company, fresh out of bankruptcy, is now controlled by Italy's Fiat and Fiat, according to the leaks from Chrysler' suburban HQ in Auburn Hills, Mich., wants to use its new American unit as a portal to being its popular Fiat 500 subcompact over form Europe and to reintroduce the Alfa Romeo brand to the states.

Fiat, we've heard, also intends to use its "multiair" fuel-efficient engine technology in Chrysler vehicles going forward and, insiders say, wants to use the Dodge brand for introduction of an electric car - likely one of the models that have been under development  - quietly - by Chrysler's ENVI group.

Yes, Virginia, the ENVI group, tasked with developing EVs and extended-range, plug-in hybrids for Chrysler when it was formed in 2007, has survived the financial mayhem and is still plugging away, so to speak.

Whether Chrysler's new masters will pick the sexy Dodge Zeo electric sports car, one of the Jeep plug-ins or the Chrysler 300-based EV concept shown at the Detroit auto show in January - all ENVI productions -or select an all-new Chrysler- or Fiat-based model for the EV is up in the air.

But as we've said all along - and as Fiat's Sergio Marchionne well knows - Chrysler can't survive in the new automotive age without EVs and PHEVs in its portfolio.

John O'Dell, Senior Editor

Posted by

John O'Dell November 3, 2009, 1:54 PM

Permalink

Categories:

Chrysler, Dodge, Fiat, Jeep, Plug-ins and Electric

Technorati Tags:

Chrysler, Chrysler Product Plan, Electric Car, EVs, Fiat, PHEVS, Plug In Hybrid