Just as everyone is ready to write off Detroit, Chrysler (of all companies) tells the WSJ that it’s going to have a fleet — "portfolio" is the term it used, actually — of electric cars and trucks year after next:
Chrysler LLC is aiming to launch a full "portfolio" of electric cars and trucks, and sports-utility vehicles starting in late 2010, a person familiar with the company’s plans said.
The lineup will include front-wheel drive and rear-wheel drive cars as well as so-called "body-on-frame" trucks, this person said.
At least one of the models will be a pure electric vehicle with a rechargable battery pack that Chrysler expects to have a range of 150 to 200 miles, this person said.
Others will have a battery that can last for about 40 miles and a small gasoline engine to provide power and recharge the battery for longer trips.
Chrysler expects these "range-extended" electric vehicles to go about 400 miles on eight gallons of gasoline, this person said….
I’m guessing that there will be a great deal of interest in this "portfolio" if it materializes. After all, my video short "Who Resurrected the Electric Car?" is my second-most watched video EVER on YouTube, with 27,748 views. (Which is first? Don’t ask. What that says about America is more disturbing, and a subject for another day.)
When I saw this breaking news on my Treo this morning, I thought it particularly ironic in light of the three letters to the editor I read in that same paper this morning, trashing Detroit all the way around for failing to do such things as this. I agreed with the letter writers, by the way.
I’ll believe Chrysler can pull this off when it does so. But the news is encouraging, from an Energy Party perspective.
This would be great, if it happens. My husband badly wants a truck for hauling stuff around town. It probably wouldn’t need to drive farther than from Aiken to Columbia, so 150 miles between charges would be fine. And I’d feel a lot better about buying a truck if I knew it wasn’t going to be a gas-guzzler. Even better if it’s electric and more of our state’s power comes from nuclear energy.
GM already has an electric sports car on the roads in California, and will bring out a compact family car that runs on electricity and a gasoline engine, in 2010.
Toyota is trying to bring theirs to market in 2011 or earlier.
Lee are you referring to the Tesla? That’s the only all-electric car I know of and it’s not build by GM.
He may be thinking of the late lamented EV1, which was the star of "Who Killed the Electric Car?"
Some of us are way ahead of this. Visit this link to see the electric car I drive to work every day. (OK–I have a 1-mile commute, so it works for me.) My longest journey in it was from my home in NE Columbia to Olympia & Five Points on St. Patty’s Day–about 22 miles.
There’s another electric car driver near me–a Xebra. I think there’s a Sparrow in Lexington and the guy who manages or owns Hiller Hardware converted a pickup to electric. He’s working on a CNG conversion right now.
For me it’s really a question of examining what your transportaion needs are. If you are going to own more than one car, you don’t necessarily need all of them to be one-size-fits-all.
My Electric car
PS–My car is called a Global Electric Motorcar. Chrysler owns the Fargo, ND company that builds them.