The ENVI line can be seen here. This is rather sad really, I like electric cars. I drive one myself. From Reuters:
Chrysler dismantles electric car plans under Fiat
DETROIT (Reuters) – 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.
Under the Marchionne plan, former Envi chief Lou Rhodes will become the group line executive in charge of electric car development for both Fiat and Chrysler, Cappa said.
As of Friday, the Chrysler Group website still featured pictures and advertisements for the now-scuttled electric vehicles it had been developing.
Here: https://www.chryslergroupllc.com/innovation/envi
That includes the Dodge Circuit, a two-seat, all-electric sports car that Chrysler engineers had rushed into prototype by using a Lotus platform.
At the time of the launch of Envi in late 2007, Chrysler executives had said the unit would operate with the speed of a venture capital-backed start-up that would compress the three-to-five-year development cycle typical for automakers.
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“I like electric cars. I drive one myself.”
I thought you drove a golf cart – not quite the same thing. Anyway, hydrogen fuel cells are the future.
I can’t claim to be surprized. Electric cars are still not competitive economically–the batteries are expensive. Right now, if Chrysler is to survive, they need to focus on short-term, cash generating projects. That’s not battery-powered cars.
I would say that the company’s survival is still very much in doubt.
Does this mean they will return the $12.5 billion in federal aid package?
I loved my electric scooter, could go 35 miles an hour and had a range of 15 miles, more then enough for a commute. The only problem was that I had to change the batteries every 12 to 16 months destroying any savings I was making by using the thing. Plus hate to say it it scared the crap out of me if I tried to be part of traffic because I did go slower then most other vehicles and many would grow impatient with me.
I did this not for the environment, but rather it was supposedly cheaper. In the end I believe it cost more, moved me slower, and put me in a greater danger of death and really didn’t help the environment on account of the used batteries that I went through… So it really was green I guess.
This is not to say I would not love a vehicle like it, it was whisper quite and fun to ride but it was impractical. It is like the amount of solar panels we would need to generate the amount of energy needed in households, impractical, but cool if it could be done. Though of course creating that amount of solar panels would be an ecological disaster imagine the amount of ground cover you would need.
There’s no way I’d buy an electric car, if the performance of my laptop battery is any sort of guide.
As for returning money to organisations I’m reminded of when the UK comedians, Morecombe and Wise, were once overpaid by their employers, the BBC. Their response on receiving a request for re-payment was a regretful letter stating that, unfortunately, they had no mechanism for re-imbursement.
The matter ended there!
When you’re dealing with SEM (somebody elses money) it’s easier to write off money than writhe with the embarrassment of admitting to a mistake.
Hmmm, bad news for Lotus I fear.
Give me a Jeep with a Scuderi air-hybrid engine! Come on!
http://www.scuderiengine.com/blog/
Paul Biggs (14:49:47) :
“I like electric cars. I drive one myself.”
“I thought you drove a golf cart – not quite the same thing. Anyway, hydrogen fuel cells are the future”.
Don’t count on it for the short term.
We have serious long term reliability problems with the fuel cells and the storage tanks still provide a limited range which puts this application at the same level as the electric car. And the costs!!!!!!!!!
Still a long way to go here
Paul Biggs (14:49:47) :
” ‘I like electric cars. I drive one myself.’
“I thought you drove a golf cart – not quite the same thing. Anyway, hydrogen fuel cells are the future.”
And always will be.
ENVI was the wrong way to go. They should have gone with the VIVA model.
(Duck and cover!)
jorgekafkazar (16:17:12) :
Paul Biggs (14:49:47) :
” ‘I like electric cars. I drive one myself.’
“I thought you drove a golf cart – not quite the same thing. Anyway, hydrogen fuel cells are the future.”
And always will be.
Superb mate- if I knew what ROTL meant – I’d be doing that right now!
Or even ROTFL- darn it
I drove an electric for a few years. Not bad transportation considering:
A. You stay within 20 miles of home.
B. You must have the wherewithall to buy a new $1200 (min) set of batteries every three years.
C. You don’t mind tending and watering 16 batteries daily, like little babies. Flooded lead-acid batteries have the best capacity for the dollar.
D. You seek adventure – the terminals work loose, they melt and sink through the battery case and explode the hydrogen there – exhilerating!
E. Should you manage to short one out completely it dies in a much larger explosion – I don’t recommend this one.
F. Large doses of DC current may suit your fancy. It’s kind of like having the hangover first. You really can weld with the two end cables of the battery pack!
G. Every gear-head in the world tailgates you just for the fun of it.
H. Remember, if you are rear ended, you’ll be trapped between two sets of acid spewing bombs.
Well, that’s enough for now. I’m out of the e-car business, myself.
I CAN REMEMBER THAT, DECADES AGO, CHRYSLER EXPERIMENTED WITH GAS TURBINES FOR CARS. IT TOO FLUNKED OUT.
I just wonder what the next 5 years will be like for the development of battery technology. I also am wondering about the weight to power ratio of some of the newer battery types. I think the battery problem will be corrected in due time. It is what is the efficiency of changing mechanical to electric to storage to electrical to mechanical? I have no idea but to me it seems the day of the self contained electric motored vehicle is a little way down the road so to speak. Hmmm I wonder could they make an air cooled small light weight nuclear reactor for power. That might be something to look at in a few years. If coal and oil are made unavailable that might be the future in any case.
Bill Derryberry
“ENVI”, hey? It reminded me of “envy”, and the book “ENVY: A Theory of Social Behaviour” by Helmut Schoeck. Very interesting and insightful. In short, the jealous says, “I am jealous of you because you are now with my ex-girlfriend.” But the envious says, “I know I’ll never have my ex-girlfriend back, so I’ll kill her so no one can have her.”
We don’t need to look far to see how many things the “envyronmentalists” don’t want others – or anyone – to have at all. “I can’t have it; I don’t want anyone to have it; I’ll destroy it.”
Electric cars are made of steel, other metals, and plastic. They drive on asphalt and concrete roads. They are not resource-free transportation, not even petroleum-free. Not even close, compared to a horse or a rickshaw.
Speaking of which, maybe Fiasco Motors should make rickshaws! Think of all the green jobs they’d create!
“Double time, Jeeves, the Duchess and I are late for the opera!”
The President should set an example. Fiasco should manufacture Rickshaw One, the Executive model. The Secret Service could pull it.
Retired BChe (17:06:37) :
Rover in the UK experimented with a gas turbine in a Rover 100 in the 60s & Lotus actually raced one at Indy in the 70s under the Gold-Leaf Team Lotus banner.
DaveE.
Damn.
That Lotus raced at Indy in 1968
DaveE,
The first three words of the article pretty much sums up the rest of it.
“Chrysler has disbanded”
Hmmm …
Can I ask y’all how the following critical functions were/are accomplished in your electric vehicles:
1) Cabin heat – bring the passenger compartment temp up to a livable and comfortable, healthful level
2) Defrost – raise the temperature of the vehicle glass above that of the ambient air’s dew point; melt ice/sleet from the windscreen; sometimes dehumidify the warm cabin air (preventing the condensation from warm, moist air present in the cabin)
3) Air Conditioning – make vehicle travel doable for a majority of those not prone to self-immolation in the summertime in the lower-numbers latitudes
The excess heat produced by an internal combustion engine serves as the basis for two of the three vital functions for motorists in a goodly portion of the US of A; basically, anyone not west-coast based particularly right along the coast.
Air conditioning requires a power-plant that isn’t idle at stops as the prime mover in most electric vehicle seems to be designed to do.
.
.
Bloody Hell!
How time flies. That Rover gas turbine was 1951!
DaveE.
Fiat and Chrysler.Loved my 124 Spyder,Twincam,high winding Italian Engine.
Hated my 128-serious piece of junk.Nicely engineered,though.Maybe they will sell Jeep
to Ford, where it belongs.There will be no widespread Electrics for the forseeable
future in my opinion.This whole bailout thing makes me ill…
WestHoustonGeo (16:43:23) : gee the battery exploding. I did that a few years ago with a farm tractor. A big boom,acid all over the tractor and me and I was glad to be alive bcause the battery is located below the gasoline tank.