Continuing with the Green theme, Chrysler has quietly announced plans to scrap its electric car division - nicknamed ENVI for the environment - and will absorb the design team into its "normal vehicle development program." Read - there won't be an electric car in Chrysler's short- or mid-term future.
Chrysler had touted its electric car technology in its hat-in-hands pitch to the Feds last Winter, and as late as this past August had received $70 million in grants from the US Department of Energy to develop a test fleet of hybrid pickup trucks and minivans.
No word yet from Chrysler on whether it intends to return the grant.
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
6 comments:
Oh, you meant THAT kind of green...sorry...we were confused.
Electric cars are very expensive. As America takes its first steps into being a third world economy, there will be a greater number of unemployed people and those relativly few who are employed will be making much less money; Therefore they would not be able to afford these cars.
Where the hell do they think the electricity is gonna come from, personal backyard windmills? It's like the man said they're communists incognito.
CW, there is ZERO reason, green or otherwise to produce an electric car. It has never made sense for the companies to invest any real capital outside of experiment or research money to pursue this. There is no market or reason. The sad truth is that conventional gasoline engines can be made as efficient as the experimental battery powered cars. The death of the American car manufacturer is based on the fact that they sat on this tech and efficiency for years because they incorrectly thought that people did not care. Now that people do seem to care they are rolling the conventional models out which are making the electric models look like jokes.
The standard Chevy Camaro today has 304hp and gets 30mpg. You can pick one up for 22K. Compare that to the Chevy Volt which Chevy has pinned its ENTIRE future on. The Volt has 160Hp and gets 50mpg but only a 40 mile electric capacity. It costs 40K. There will probably be some sort of incredible tax credit to bait people to buy it but that would not be higher than the new home tax credit.
Why on earth would you spend that money?
The sad part is that if Chevy were not releasing the volt they could undoubtedly massage another 15mpg out of their conventional engines.
Electric cars are a waste of private and federal money. They will kill what remains of the US car industry.
Anon - I don't disagree with many of your points. The point I attempted to convey is that I think Chrysler realized this too awhile back, but nevertheless continued the farce in order to procure the federal funds you allude to in your last sentence.
Goldwater, you are absolutely correct about that. That is the only reason manufacturers continue to pursue this tech. Federal Dollars. But as the fed runs our car companies now, who knows what priorities they will fund and those priorities certainly do not need to make financial sense.
Post a Comment