Now that we've had a chance to digest the future business plan from Ford, which was sent to Congress this morning, General Motors and Chrysler have followed suit with documents of their own. Unlike Ford, both Chrysler and GM claim that they need money right away just to keep the lights turned on for 2009. As was the case with Ford, both GM and Chrysler have emphasized an increased investment in fuel saving technologies as one of the main reasons the they need federal help. Chrysler is asking for a $7 billion secured working capital bridge loan by December 31, 2008 and GM requires term loans of up to $12 billion to keep the lights on through the end of 2009 with an initial draw of $4 billion in December 2008.

If they get the low-interest, deferred loans that they are looking for, the automakers have promised to introduce new vehicles with advanced technology, including full electrics and hybrids. Chrysler, for instance, says that it will begin selling EVs for fleet use in 2009, with regular customer deliveries scheduled for 2010. We're not sure what it'll be selling, though a variation of one of the three EV concepts it showed off a few months back seems most likely. In any case, the automaker believes it can have 500,000 produced by 2013.

General Motors, for its part, says that it will "launch predominately high mileage, energy-efficient cars and crossovers" in the near-term future. GM also highlights the Chevy Volt that is slated for launch in 2010 and its advanced E-Flex drivetrain, which will in turn go on to power additional models. Also under development are EVs that use hydrogen fuel cells to generate electricity. Take a look over at Autoblog for all the details of Chrysler's and GM's plans. Both automakers seem to by saying that they've done all they can do on their own to fix their problems. Now they need assistance from the Feds to carry them through until the financial markets begin to recover and people start buying cars again. Without immediate help, all of these environmentally-friendly plans will be meaningless.

[Sources: General Motors, Chrysler]

Now that Chrysler's deal to build dual clutch transmissions in a joint venture with Getrag is officially kaput, the company will stick with its existing 6-speed automatic for now. In early 2007, Chrysler announced the deal with Getrag to supply up to 700,000 transmissions a year that could cut fuel consumption by six percent. It was part of a series of powertrain announcements that included the new Phoenix V6 engine family. Getrag was unable to raise the $300 million needed to pay for its tooling and Chrysler filed suit in October. Now that the entire deal has collapsed, Chrysler VP Frank Klegon has told Automotive News that the company will make refinements to its conventional 6-speed automatic while it tries to find an alternative. That alternative will likely have to come from BorgWarner, the other major manufacturer of dual clutch transmissions and supplier of the DSG units to Volkswagen.

[Source: Automotive News (sub. req'd)]

It's now looking like Chrysler's hopes of getting a fuel efficient small car from China's Chery Motors are dead in the water. The company had agreed with Chery in late 2006 to collaborate on small car development and production. This had led to hopes that the Dodge Hornet concept might become a reality at some point. The first stage in the deal was to sell Dodge-badged versions of the Chery QQ in Mexico and central America before bringing all new cars to the U.S. Apparently money problems at both companies, combined with the poor quality of the Chinese-made cars, combined to kill the deal. Chery's cars had no hope of passing U.S. safety standards in their current form and an all-new car was apparently out of the budget. If Chrysler survives, it may have to rely on a more recent deal with Great Wall Motors of China or Nissan. The Japanese brand recently started providing a Dodge-branded version of the Versa for sale in South America.


[Source: Automotive News - sub. req'd]

Things are not looking good in Auburn Hills these days. It's looking increasingly like Chrysler is about to head off to hospice to live out its final days as Cerberus has given up on trying to revive the littlest of the Detroit 3. But even as the turkey vultures circle outside waiting for the carcass to cool off, the engineers in the tech center are still trying to show some signs of life, no matter how meek. To that end they have been working away, trying to tweak the mileage numbers of most of the lineup. They have managed to improve the numbers of 73 percent of the surviving models for 2009. With the exception of the soon to be euthanized Durango and Aspen hybrids, the improvements are only 1-2 mpg but when you don't have much to work with, you do what you can. Considering most of the models had no significant hardware upgrades, getting what they did is something of an achievement. Unfortunately, it may all be for naught soon as Chrysler seems almost certain to be killed off either by absorption or liquidation. The Chrysler press release is after the jump.

[Source: Chrysler]

The other day, our friends at Autoblog did a little thought experiment about which vehicle models would survive if the much-talked-about merger between GM and Chrysler comes to pass. The post didn't focus on the greener side of things, but we already know that the big Chrysler SUVs aren't long for this world and that Chrysler already wants a little of the Volt advertising attention. So, what might happen should these two companies become one?

Lots of job cuts, to be sure, but when it comes to the excess vehicle models in the line-ups, Grant Thornton of the consulting firm Grant Thornton LLP, told Automotive News (subs req'd) that of the 26 or so current Chrysler models, only seven are "core" and would survive the merger: the Dodge Ram pickup; Chrysler and Dodge minivans; and several Jeep models, including the Wrangler and Grand Cherokee. None of those are exactly eco-friendly, but AN writes that GM's plug-in hybrid knowledge is a vital addition to the potential merged company (file under: no kidding), while Chrysler's cash is appealing to GM (again, no kidding). What do you see surviving should a new GMrysler company take shape?

[Source: Automotive News (subs req'd)]

Chrysler has announced this morning that it's moving up the closing of its Newark, DE assembly plant. The closure was originally announced in February 2007 and was planned to happen later in 2009. Instead, the plant will be shuttered effective December 31, 2008. Newark is the home of the Chrysler Aspen and Dodge Durango SUVs, products whose sales have tanked this year. At this point, we're still trying to find out what this means for the Aspen and Durango. Chrysler has not said if production will be moved to another factory or if the products will simply be canceled before the end of their lifecycle. The significance of this is that Chrysler only recently launched production of the two-mode hybrid versions of the Durango and Aspen at the Newark plant. If the vehicles are canceled, that will mean a very short production run. The same hybrid powertrain is also being installed in the Ram pickup for a 2010 introduction. We had our first drive of the Aspen and Durango hybrids just a few months ago. We'll update as soon as we here something from Chrysler on the fate of the SUVs.


Photos Copyright ©2008 Sam Abuelsamid / Weblogs, Inc.
[Source: Chrysler]

General Motors may be seeking some sort of coupling with Chrysler but apparently there is another would-be suitor waiting beneath the balcony. And this one brought roses. The perpetually-troubled maker of Hemi's and recent electric vehicle espouser now has a new offer from the head of Nissan-Renault, Carlos Ghosn. According to the Detroit News, Chrysler's largest stakeholder, Cerberus Capital Management LP has received a proposal offering to buy up a 20 percent stake and turn the French-Japanese relationship into a menage-a-trois. Nissan, which, unlike GM, has a bit of cash on hand, already has an arrangement to put together some small vehicles for Chrysler and the American trollop is said to be building the next-gen Titan pick-up for Nissan. Reports say the pair share good chemistry. As an aside, Daimler, who recently shared a marital bed with Chrysler, is probably hoping their remaining 19.9 per cent share gets taken off their hands so they can finalize their divorce and get on with their life.

So what's all this corporate hanky-panky mean for ABG readers? Renault, Nissan and Chrysler are all talking up electric cars in 2010. The kind of buying synergy for things like batteries and control systems resulting from the tie-up could go some distance toward making future EV products from the tri-glomerate cost competitive with the other global auto-makers out there. If it also brought some eco-friendly Renaults to Chrysler sales lots, that would be a plus.

[Source: Detroit News]

Chrysler's plans to start equipping some of its vehicles with dual clutch transmissions later next year has just hit a major hitch. its deal to build a joint venture transmissions plant with Getrag is now dead. A week after suing the transmission supplier for its failure to raise the necessary cash to pay for tooling for a new factory, Chrysler has now terminated the deal altogether. The two companies met on Friday to try to resolve the issue but could not reach agreement so Chrysler canceled the entire project. Getrag had lined up $300 million in funding from German banks, but the banks wanted Chrysler to put a similar amount of money in escrow, something to which the automaker would not agree. Chrysler was responsible for construction of the factory and Getrag was to pay for tooling. The factory is nearly completed and it's not clear how Chrysler plans to proceed now.

[Source: Automotive News - sub. req'd]

We know all about the technology that makes the hybrid versions of Chrysler Aspen and Dodge Durango SUVs work. It's quite similar to the 2-Mode system that General Motors uses in its GMC Yukon and Chevy Tahoe hybrids and was jointly developed by these two corporations along with BMW. Our own Sam Abuelsamid has driven the Chrysler hybrid 'utes and managed a respectable 22.1 miles per gallon, beating Chrysler's early predictions of 19 mpg city and 20 mpg highway. At that time, the hybrids had not yet had their official EPA mileage ratings bestowed upon them, but that situation has since been rectified, with the 2009 models achieving 20 city and 22 highway. That figure measures up rather well with its most direct competitors, the aforementioned full-size SUVs from GM, which match the Dodge and Chrysler units in the city but trail on the highway by two miles per gallon. This figure gives Chrysler, with its 400-horsepower hybrid, the best fuel mileage in its category. Chrysler's also quick to point out that its full-sizers are priced nearly $8,000 less than the units from GM and qualify for a $2,200 tax credit.


[Source: Chrysler]

Chrysler seems to be more than a little behind its cross-town rivals when it comes to electric vehicles and hybrids. After all, GM has committed a great deal of its available resources to get its Volt to market as quickly as possible and matches Chrysler's full-size SUV hybrid offerings. Ford has been selling a hybrid version of its own Escape for years with good success. Meanwhile, Chrysler has shown off three EV concepts that don't quite seem ready for prime time and has just released its first hybrids. Still, the automaker definitely recognizes that fuel efficiency and vehicles that don't use any gasoline at all will become increasingly relevant in the next few years.

Chrysler is also saddled with mid-size sedans that can't quite compete on even footing with the best from Detroit, Japan or Korea. It's hard at work fixing that problem and says that both fully electric and range-extended hybrids are being considered. With all the talk as of late regarding a possible GM/Chrysler merger (as unlikely as that seems), along with the admission that Chrysler would prefer to have a partner for its next mid-sized sedan, we wonder if the automaker has had talks with the General regarding platform sharing of the new Volt. Totally speculation, but interesting nonetheless, no?

[Source: Automotive News - sub. req'd]

Chrysler's much ballyhooed deal with China's Chery Motors to build small cars hasn't yielded much of value for the Auburn Hills manufacturer yet. Chrysler offers a Dodge-branded version of the Chery A1 in South America, but no new cars have emerged yet. It looks like Chrysler may now be working with a new Chinese partner to build an A-segment car. Great Wall has been better known up to now for building cars with a startling resemblance to models from other manufacturers, such as the first generation Scion xA and xB. Chrysler staff are reportedly working with Great Wall to produce a micro car for Chrysler to be sold world-wide. Fans of the original xB probably shouldn't get their hopes up though. Selling this model outside of China probably wouldn't sit well with Toyota.

[Source: China Car Times]

We've taken a good look at each of the three electric vehicle concepts that Chrysler took the wraps off of last week, plus one extra for good measure. For various reasons, none of these vehicles really seems quite ready for prime time - one is based on a Lotus sportscar chassis, two require huge battery packs and the last is limited to 25 miles per hour. Tough bring those to market. Still, Chrysler says it plans to launch one of them by 2010 in the U.S. with European delivery scheduled a bit later. We'll see. If that does happen, Chrysler's EV would join the Chevy Volt as the first mainstream(-ish) cars in the States not powered by gasoline in a very, very long time.

If Chrysler's predictions are accurate, though, don't expect the market to stay petroleum-dependent for long. In fact, Chrysler's executive vice president of product development, Frank Klegon, has said that half the cars sold here in 2020 will feature electric power. That's a long way to go in just a decade. In any case, the future promises lots of interesting things for the domestic auto market.


[Source: Automotive News Europe - sub. req'd]

The unfortunate reality for Chrysler in North America is that aside from the new Ram, the Wrangler and the minivans, few of its products are considered desirable alternatives in their segments. At least part of that is due to what many consider - rightly or wrongly - to be outdated powertrains. That impression certainly won't be helped by this latest release from Chrysler. When the Dodge Journey was launched in the European market this summer, it was offered with both a 2.0L turbodiesel engine and an optional 6-speed Getrag dual clutch transmission. Here in the home market we only have the option of four and six cylinder gas engines with automatic transmissions that have four and six ratios respectively.

To make matters worse, the Sebring and Avenger which were already available overseas with the diesel engine now also offer the dual clutch gearbox. The DCT uses a pair of wet clutches that are coupled to alternating ratios, one handling 1,3, 5 and the other taking care of 2,4 and 6. The electronic controls offer quick, seamless automatic shifting and a six percent reduction in fuel consumption than the four speed automatic. Over here we're going to have to wait until 2010 to get DCT's in Chryslers to go along with the new Phoenix engines. I'm generally a manual transmission kind of guy, but my experience with VW's DSG has convinced me that DCTs can be OK. How come the Europeans get so much of the good stuff first?

[Source: Chrysler]

When Chrysler introduced us to its EV line-up the other day some of us were a little taken aback. Although they hadn't explicitly said so prior to the unveiling, the fact that they had shown off two ER-EVs and an all-electric concept at the last Detroit Auto Show led some to assume that one or more of these might be involved in this new unveiling. Obviously this was not the case. Instead we we're treated to the somewhat dowdy Chrysler mini-van mainstay, a Jeep of SUV-like proportions and a freshly painted Lotus Europa with a UQM electric set-up. Oh yeah, there was also the peculiar Peapod.

That got us to thinking, what if Chrysler had of reached into its closet and pulled out some of its previous concept vehicles and presented them with electric drivetrains installed instead. Recycling is pretty green, no? They must have something from the not-so-distant past that had decent aerodynamics or some other quality that might give it an advantage as an EV over the ones they actually chose. We decided to take a look for ourselves and humbly share our choices after the jump.

Most of the rumors in recent months have indicated that LG Chem/CPI have the upper hand and are likely to be chosen by General Motors to supply the lithium ion battery packs for the Chevrolet Volt. However, there are plenty of electric drive vehicle projects out there and just because A123 systems may not get the Volt business, it doesn't mean they are completely out. The Wall Street Journal is reporting that the Massachusetts based battery maker may be in the running to supply energy storage systems to Chrysler for that companies ER-EV. During a nationwide video conference today with dealers today, Chrysler is expected to show a preview of the challenger it is developing to the Volt. ABG asked Chrysler about attending the video conference which will be held in 100 movie theaters around the country but was told the event was for dealers only. However, a spokesman told ABG that we would see the new ER-EV "very, very soon." We'll be watching to see if the tortoise can come from behind and beat the hare, even though the long-eared one hasn't been napping of late.

[Source: Wall Street Journal]