Chrysler Disbands Electric Car Engineering Team, Drops Ambitious Pre-Bankruptcy EV Targets

[hatrack]

DETROIT - Chrysler has disbanded a team of engineers dedicated to rushing a range of electric vehicles to showrooms and dropped ambitious sales targets for battery-powered cars set as it was sliding toward bankruptcy and seeking government aid. The move by Fiat SpA marks a major reversal for Chrysler, which had used its electric car program as part of the case for a $12.5 billion federal aid package.

As late as August, Chrysler took $70 million in grants from the U.S. Department of Energy to develop a test fleet of 220 hybrid pickup trucks and minivans, vehicles now scrapped in the sweeping turnaround plan for Chrysler announced this week by Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne. Chrysler spokesman Nick Cappa said on Friday that an in-house team of electric car development engineers had been disbanded in favor of a more traditional organization.

The automaker's former owner, Cerberus Capital Management, had set up a special division called "Envi" -- derived from Environment -- to spearhead development of hybrid technology where Chrysler badly trailed competitors. "Envi is absorbed into the normal vehicle development program," Cappa told Reuters. Under mounting pressure to improve the fuel-efficiency of its line-up, Chrysler announced in September last year that it was developing three electric vehicles and would sell the first of the models by 2010. In January at the Detroit Auto Show, Chrysler upped the ante on its electric car bet by pledging to have 500,000 battery-powered vehicles on the road by 2013, including sports cars and trucks.

But a presentation of Chrysler's five-year strategy by Marchionne on Wednesday made no mention of Chrysler's earlier electric car development plans.

EDIT

http://planetark.org/enviro-news/item/55386

[GliderGuider]

1. Bait and switch.

Fuckers. :thumbsdown:

[rucky]

2. There's 70-mil we'll never see again. n/t

[Avalux]

3. Demand the 12.5 billion back - NOW. n/t

[leveymg]

4. Cerberus took a boat load of US Treasury money and sailed off toward the Gulf of Aqaba

A parting gift from the Bush Administration to its friends in the MidEast.

Like many vulture capital funds, Cerberus Capital Management fed off of the corpses of companies fattened and then killed off by the policies of Right-wing administrations. War produced most of the roadkill, and bad industrial and public finance policy accounted for much of the rest. Then, there were the bailouts. Lots of rotting meat -- $8 billion in federal guarantees -- to feast on at the public expense. But, that's a game that can only be played so long.

See,

leveymg's Journal - That was a heckuva deal for Cerberus that ...That was a heckuva deal for Cerberus that bought Chrysler in 2007 for $1.35B. Posted by leveymg in General Discussion Wed May 06th 2009, 02:30 PM
http://journals.democraticunderground.com/leveymg/411 - Cached - Similar -

[divideandconquer]

5. Chrysler ends ENVI, redeploys engineers

Chrysler ends ENVI, redeploys engineers

November 10th, 2009 by Bill Cawthon

Chrysler has shut down its standalone ENVI electric vehicle program and its personnel have been assigned to other vehicle development programs as Chrysler and Fiat merge their hybrid and electric vehicle programs.

Lou Rhodes, who was in charge of ENVI, continues to oversee electrical vehicle development for both companies. A two-mode hybrid versions of the Ram pickup is still on tap for next year. Plug-in hybrids of the Ram and a minivan are due in 2011 as part of a 200-vehicle fleet developed with a $70-million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy. Chrysler will not have a hybrid passenger car like the Toyota Prius or Ford Fusion until 2015.

At the moment, it looks like the first all-electric vehicle from the Fiat-Chrysler effort will probably be a Fiat Doblo commercial van.
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<http://www.allpar.com/news/index.php/2009/11/chrysler-ends-envi-redeploys-engineers>