Chrysler to go all-electric by 2028, starting with the Airflow in 2025:
Not much appeared to be happening at Chrysler in the past few years, though that's about to change. Its parent company, Stellantis, announced yesterday that Chrysler will become its vanguard electric brand. By 2028, the 96-year-old automaker's entire lineup will be all-electric.
That's not too much of a stretch. Chrysler only sells two vehicles right now, the decade-old 300C sedan and the Pacifica minivan, which is available as a plug-in hybrid. Today, at the Consumer Electronics Show, the company shared more details on the Airflow, a concept crossover that appears to be close to ready for production—so close, in fact, that the announcement was probably a thinly veiled preview of the company's first EV due in 2025.
The Airflow is powered by two 150 kW (201 hp) electric motors, one for each axle, and while Chrysler hasn't disclosed the size of the battery, it said it is targeting 350–400 miles of range. If the company can achieve that, it would be quite the coup, rivaling the best from Tesla. Good thing it has a few years before it has to deliver.
In resurrecting the Airflow name, Chrysler isn't just giving a nod to its aerodynamicists. It's saying that the storied brand still has what it takes to lead the pack. The original 1934 Airflow was a revolutionary teardrop of a car, designed using extensive wind tunnel testing and made with an all-steel, unibody frame. It drew inspiration from the contemporary Streamline Moderne movement, and though the car was a commercial flop, its design and features were nonetheless influential.
(Score: 0, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 07 2022, @12:48AM (8 children)
I wouldn't buy a piece of shit Chrysler even if it had a proper engine.
(Score: 4, Funny) by HammeredGlass on Friday January 07 2022, @01:14AM (6 children)
Bad enough it was Chrysler, now it's the Italian-French Chrysler. Give up now on ever again hearing about Chrysler and reliability in the same breath.
(Score: 4, Informative) by bzipitidoo on Friday January 07 2022, @03:32AM
Too right! The 1960s Chryslers that my parents owned were crap, the PT Cruiser was great on the looks and crap on the quality, and the Dodge Neon was poor quality junk. The 1960s Chrysler New Yorker had a monster 7L engine, and drank gas so fast you could see the needle of the gas gauge move when you dared to open up all 4 barrels on the carb. Oh yeah, powerful, but it came at a price: 13 mpg. No one was any good at designing cars to withstand salt on the roads, and after a few winters, the inadequate engine supports in the New Yorker were about ready to give out from rust damage. Didn't dare push it anywhere close to max power, or you might rip out the engine supports.
All the American automakers were garbage in the 1970s-- the infamous Pinto with the too exciting gas tank, the Vega with the aluminum block that needed overhauling way too soon, to name just 2. IT wasn't just the cars, there was also crap tires, such as the Firestone 500. The Japanese entry with good quality stuff in the 1980s put serious marketplace hurt on them and forced them to improve. And even after they shaped up, their compact cars were still cheap junk. But Chrysler was always a notch below the rest.
(Score: 3, Funny) by mhajicek on Friday January 07 2022, @06:14AM (3 children)
In heaven, the police are British, the chefs are French, and the engineers are German. In hell, the police are German, the chefs are British, and the engineers are French.
The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 07 2022, @02:16PM (1 child)
...and god, of course, is American, in every case.(grin)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 05 2022, @02:46AM
Depends on which god.
I think that Thor would probably be some version of scandinavian, while I expect that Vishnu would be dravidian, at a guess.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 07 2022, @02:55PM
Why do you think Heaven's police will be short and fat women?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 07 2022, @07:00AM
Unless you include phrases with one negative in either Chrysler or reliability, you seem to have harbored delusions for quite a long time. Oh, well, better give them up late than never.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Phoenix666 on Friday January 07 2022, @01:53PM
We bought a 2017 Chrysler Pacifica plug-in hybrid used a couple years ago. Apart from summer road trips we've only filled up the tank twice. The battery takes care of 99% of our driving. We charge the car overnight using a regular outlet. So we haven't paid much mind to gas prices. Our solar panels went in two weeks ago and the Tesla powerwall got its firmware update a week ago, so we haven't produced much energy yet, but the energy production app that comes with it says the car doesn't move our power usage that much.
The vehicle handles like a boat, but the acceleration is good. Last summer a Dodge Charger was revving its engine and drag racing down Jericho Turnpike. I wound up right behind him at a red light and thought it would be fun to test the mini-van's acceleration. When it hit green the electric motors had me hugging his back bumper until we hit 55-60mph in a 40mph zone and I decided to throttle back. (He must have been frustrated having to struggle to get away from a mini-van :-).
But the general quality of the vehicle is fine. It's much better than I ever expected from an American vehicle. It's the first I've owned in 30 years. I still would prefer a Tesla, but I have to admit the Chrysler is roomier than Teslas.
It's one data point, but there it is.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by istartedi on Friday January 07 2022, @12:59AM (4 children)
Maybe by 2025 the old car makers will realize that not everybody wants Tesla styling in an EV. That non-circular steering wheel is one of the worst designed features copied from Tesla. The over-sized iPad on the dash is almost as silly. Followed by, build a car that can receive software patches after delivery, and it will almost certainly *require* software patches after delivery. Look guys, it's plain that Tesla innovated but you don't need to copy them. How did the Japanese beat US makers in the 70s? Not by copying; but by building something that was cheaper to own and operate. They'll probably do it again, if China doesn't. I hate to knock any EV, since we were craving them for so long and patents were holding us back; but the big makers really do need to come up with something other than a Tesla wannabe.
Appended to the end of comments you post. Max: 120 chars.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 07 2022, @01:25AM (1 child)
Probably not by 2025. If even half the goals mentioned in the article are met by Chrysler/Stellantis it will be a minor miracle.
But I can hardly agree with Ars on this line, assuming that you treat Chrysler & Dodge as the siblings that they are:
> Not much appeared to be happening at Chrysler in the past few years
For the niche Dodge serves, some of their high power muscle cars have been very well received.
(Score: 0) by Mockingbird on Friday January 07 2022, @02:38AM
Plymouth and DeSoto, on the other hand, not to mention Fargo and Imperial, are really not happening.
(Score: 2) by captain normal on Friday January 07 2022, @02:18AM (1 child)
Funny you should mention China.
https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/stellantis-joint-venture-with-chinas-gac-close-one-two-plants-2021-09-07/ [reuters.com]
Also, "GAC Fiat Chrysler Automobiles Co., Ltd. is an automobile manufacturing company headquartered in Changsha, China and a 50:50 joint-venture between GAC Group and Stellantis."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GAC_Fiat_Chrysler [wikipedia.org]
When life isn't going right, go left.
(Score: 4, Informative) by MostCynical on Friday January 07 2022, @04:54AM
Stellantis N.V. was formed in 2021, when Italian-American Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and the French PSA Group merged.
Then GAC and Stellantis created GAC Fiat Chrysler Automobiles Co., Ltd, which will build cars in China, some of which will be badged as Chryslers.
They will be as authentically American as the latest MGs are British.
The Stellantis is now the number 3 manufactuer in the world..
15 largest manufacturers by production volume in 2017, according to OICA.(wikipedia)
Rank Group Country Vehicles
1 Toyota Japan 10,466,051
2 Volkswagen Group Germany 10,382,334
3 Hyundai South Korea 7,218,391
4 General Motors United States 6,856,880
5 Ford United States 6,386,818
6 Nissan Japan 5,769,277
7 Honda Japan 5,236,842
8 Fiat Chrysler Automobilesa Italy/United States 4,600,847
9 Renault France 4,153,589
10 Groupe PSAa France 3,649,742
11 Suzuki Japan 3,302,336
12 SAIC China 2,866,913
13 Daimler Germany 2,549,142
14 BMW Germany 2,505,741
15 Geely China 1,950,382
Top 20 motor vehicle producing countries (2018 - from wikipedia)
Motor vehicle production (units)
China 27,809,196
United States 11,314,705
Japan 9,728,528
India 5,174,645
Germany 5,120,409
Mexico 4,100,525
South Korea 4,028,834
Brazil 2,879,809
Spain 2,819,565
France 2,270,000
Thailand 2,167,694
Canada 2,020,840
Russia 1,767,674
United Kingdom 1,604,328
Turkey 1,550,150
Czech Republic 1,345,041
Indonesia 1,343,714
Iran 1,095,526
Slovakia 1,090,000
Italy 1,060,068
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: -1, Spam) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 07 2022, @01:29AM (1 child)
... and end police brutality. BLM FTW.
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 07 2022, @01:46AM
Why would you waste copper on stocks when wood serves perfectly well?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stocks [wikipedia.org]
(Score: 2) by Frosty Piss on Friday January 07 2022, @04:16AM (1 child)
And not only will they be EV, they will be able to FLY!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 07 2022, @01:53PM
https://observer.com/2020/12/uber-sell-self-driving-flying-car-focus-on-ride-sharing-food-delivery/ [observer.com]
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Spamalope on Friday January 07 2022, @06:26AM (6 children)
So... how exactly are our houses going to get 100kw+ electrical hookups for fast chargers?
Households with teenage kids can have 4+ cars. A single slow charger will not cut it.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 07 2022, @07:05AM
I'll sell you this battery buffer that charges slowly when you're not using it then delivers the charge as fast as the car can suck it up.
Up to you to install solar panels on your roof for all your kids or refrain from procreation if you can't afford a home with thick enough cabling.
(Score: 2) by Frosty Piss on Friday January 07 2022, @07:35AM
Nuclear energy is the clean energy future.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by EJ on Friday January 07 2022, @10:07AM (2 children)
There was a light breeze here in my (very modern, high-tech industry, research-institute) town, and the power went out.
In the summer, too many AC units come on at the same time, and a transformer might blow.
California has rolling blackouts to try to prevent wildfires.
Even IF we have the ability to GENERATE all the power that will be needed, we aren't going to be able to get it TO the houses.
(Score: 5, Funny) by PiMuNu on Friday January 07 2022, @10:33AM
There was talk of a plan in the UK to use parked EVs as a local buffer and feed energy back to the grid if required. Not sure if that will ever work, it sounds like recipe for disaster (WTF? My car was discharged and now I can't get to work). OTOH our main spike in the UK is electric kettle going on for tea at half time during the footie internationals.
(Score: 1, Troll) by mcgrew on Saturday January 08 2022, @04:26PM
Blame your incompetent state regulators. In the over three decades CWLP has supplied my electricity, it was out for an hour once in a very bad storm, and when a tornado destroyed my neighborhood's infrastructure in March 2006 power was out for a week, landline phones and cable were out for over a month. NO power for an hour or two? That won't stop me from driving to the store, where they're probably closed, too, because it ain't 1850, you can't run a business without electricity.
Guess what? When the power is out YOU CAN'T PUMP GAS! The four closest stations, as well as every other business affected by the tornado were closed until power came back on.
If you can't charge your EV, you can't fill your gas tank, either. What fucking morons modded you up?
mcgrewbooks.com mcgrew.info nooze.org
(Score: 3, Touché) by mcgrew on Saturday January 08 2022, @04:14PM
Apparently your bias toward climate change is getting in the way of your thinking processes. YOU DON'T NEED 100KW AT HOME because at home there's no hurry, plug it in at night with your standard 20 kW and it's charged in the morning.
Fast charging is only for trips. 100 kW may charge it as fast as filling a gas tank, but you don't need it when your car's in the garage.
mcgrewbooks.com mcgrew.info nooze.org
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Username on Friday January 07 2022, @09:12PM (4 children)
2026 is when the "vehicle kill switch" and breathalyzer legislation kicks in. I can't wait for male cops to start killing the engines on attractive women's cars.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 07 2022, @09:20PM
You should get yourself to the nearest police academy, pronto.
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Saturday January 08 2022, @04:28PM (1 child)
Not in Illinois. Europe or Colorado, maybe.
mcgrewbooks.com mcgrew.info nooze.org
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 08 2022, @04:46PM
LOL. It's federal law, buddy. Try to keep up with the news. I know you're old, but that's no excuse for ignorance.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 05 2022, @02:50AM
Yup, time for a crate engine and a kit car.
I'd rather build a Lotus Seven than deal with that horseshit.