Chrysler Electric Car

Chrysler unveils electric car that gets 150 miles a charge.

Chrysler LLC said Tuesday it will sell a plug-in electric car in the United States by 2010, joining the race to develop a battery-powered vehicle to boost its environmental credentials.

"[We're] looking at a full line of electric vehicles," Chrysler chief executive Bob Nardelli said on the CNBC TV network. "We've made huge commitments, both from a resource standpoint and from a financial standpoint."

Chrysler, the third-largest automaker in the United States and number two in Canada, pledged to have at least one electric vehicle in showrooms by the end of 2010. It said some of its electric models might be tested in fleets as early as next year.

Chrysler unveiled a working prototype all-electric car badged the Dodge EV outside its corporate headquarters in Auburn Hills, Mich. The two-door sports car has a lithium-ion battery that can power it 150 miles on one full charge, the company said. It goes from zero to 50 mph in less than five seconds. A video on CBNC showed Mr. Nardelli and a reporter driving the car on a test track.

Chrysler gave the network an exclusive peak of the Dodge as well as three other electric vehicles – a minivan, a Jeep and a microcar known as the "peapod." The microcar is an all-electric beefed-up version of the low-speed vehicles Chrysler has been making and selling for 10 years under its Global Electric Motorcars unit to buyers in gated communities and elsewhere. The minivan and Jeep vehicles are hybrids that have small gasoline engines to back up the electric batteries. They can go 40 miles on pure electric power, Chrysler said.

Chrysler already builds traditional gasoline-powered versions of the minivans at its assembly plant in Windsor, Ont. It could also build any hybrid versions there.

The company's announcement comes one week after General Motors Corp. unveiled the production version of its Chevrolet Volt electric car at a ceremony to mark its one hundred years as a company. Mr. Nardelli acknowledged that although Chrysler is privately-held, it has to be "more vocal" in publicizing the technology it is working on.

This past January, Chrysler said it formed an internal team called ENVI mandated to develop electric drive vehicles. It showed three plug-in hybrid electric concept vehicles at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit the same month: The Chrysler ecoVoyager van, which has a fuel cell range extender; the Jeep Renegade, which has a diesel range extender, and the Dodge ZEO sports car.

Other automakers are also working on their own electric cars, including Toyota Motor Corp. and BMW AG.

All three Detroit area automakers have been pummelled by falling sales of pickup trucks and SUVs in the United States, long their big profit-driving vehicles. The companies are now pushing the U.S. Congress to free up $25-billion in loans to help them retool plants to build more fuel-efficient vehicles.

U.S. lawmakers last year passed legislation requiring car manufacturers to boost the fuel economy of their vehicles 40% by 2020. Canada has said it will adopt, at minimum, U.S. standards.

Source: Financial Post