Chrysler disbands ENVI electric car group

At last year’s LA and Detroit auto show, back when it was owned by Cerberus Capital Management, Chrysler’s concept cars were all electric, including a battery-powered Town & Country minivan, 200C sedan, Dodge sports car, and Jeep Patriot. The message was clear: electric cars would were to play a key role in the company’s future.
 
Now that the company has been bought by Fiat, it has announced new product plans that  focus on improving its conventional cars. (See "Chrysler’s business plan: The Fiat platforms.") Consumer Reports was not able to recommend a single Chrysler model from 2007 or 2008. For 2009, we were finally able to recommend the redesigned Dodge Ram pickup. (See “Detroit report cards.”)
 
Now Chrysler has emphasized its fresh product plans by disbanding its electric vehicle division, ENVI (short for environmental), announced last year. Chrysler says its electric car development will now be rolled into its standard product development, according to Reuters.

In Chrysler’s future product plan presentation earlier this month, company Chairman Sergio Marchionne said electric cars are expected to account for less than two percent of Chrysler’s sales by 2014, far less than the 300,000 envisioned under ENVI.
 
—Eric Evarts

Comments

[CyCarConsulting]

Fiatslers whole purpose of buying Chrysler is to flood the American shores with Fiat product. They could care less about Chrysler. Why would this decision be a surprise ?

[Canada Guy]

Electric cars are useful in small doses, and can be beneficial for the environment. However, they cannot, and should not, be used to replace cars on the mass scale. We need more efficient long distance transportation systems for cargo and passengers, such as electrified rail.

[fronz metal]

Scrap it and start all over again,sounds like a good idea to me. It wasnt much of a loss at all. First two were to be plug in hybreds still in development stage and one was to be an all electric dodge sports car which sounds kind of cool but not practical for a mass scale markets. What North America needs is an all electric automobile available in several body styles. Even an all electric truck. Canada USA and Mexico can adopt a common plug in configuration. The SAE j1772 standard ,still to be announced. Im waiting for the all electric truck thats what i want. I think its unfair to bail out Chrysler and not support small start ups like CODA who received no funds.