Future Car - Chrysler EV Series

EV stands for Electric Vehicle.

Much to everyone's surprise Chrysler recently unveiled an all electric vehicle called the Dodge Circuit EV. The Circuit will be an all electric sports car vaguely reminiscent of the Tesla Roadster. This is no fluke as both the Circuit and the Tesla share the same Lotus Europa body.

As Lotus worked with Tesla on both the body and electronics, it is assumed that this expertise is being passed on to Chrysler for the Circuit. Chrysler, for it's part, is silent on this assumption.

The Dodge Circuit will use 200kW ([kiloWatt] or 268 horsepower) electric motor mated to a lithium-ion battery pack complete with integrated power management module. Torque will be in the four-hundred eighty (480) foot pound range which will help launch the Circuit quietly and quickly to sixty miles per hour and beyond. The Circuit EV is expected to achieve 0 to 60 mph in less than five seconds. It will also attain a top speed of one-hundred twenty (120) mph.

Range is expected to be between 150 & 200 miles with a single recharge. Recharge times of 8 to 10 hours on 110-volt house current or 4 hours on 220-volt current.

Chrysler will also introduce a Jeep Patriot EV and a Chrysler Town and Country EV. Both vehicles will be based on the same electric technology and drive train in the Dodge EV with the addition of a gasoline powered engine.

These two vehicles are slated to be hybrids, unlike the Dodge EV, and will be able to use power at the wheels from either the battery pack or an on-board engine. Much like the Chevy Volt (a range extended vehicle; not a hybrid) gasoline engine power will not be used until the vehicle has reached forty (40) miles.

Once the gasoline engine kicks in, the total range is expected to be four-hundred (400) miles. This is 1/3 more mileage per fill-up than the Chevy Volt or Ford Hydrogen Internal Combustion Engine (I.C.E.) vehicles.

Finally, Chrysler unveiled the 200C at the 2009 Detriot Auto Show. This car is a slightly scaled down version of the existing 300.

The 200C will be a four (4) passenger vehicle running on lithium-ion cell technology and power augmented gasoline engine. As with the other Chrysler models featured here it is not a hybrid, but a range extended vehicle whose power-train is strictly electric driven by the battery packs or via a generator connected to a gasoline engine.

The 200C will feature a forty (40) mile battery only run mode with no fuel consumption. Performance statistics are touted to be zero to sixty (0 - 60) in seven (7) seconds with a top speed greater than one-hundred twenty (120) miles per hour.

In this version the cockpit has no switches or levers using instead a "...panoramic multimedia touchscreen, a passenger-dedicated ‘techno-leaf' and a stowable tablet PC.*"

The "techno-leaf" will contain climate and entertainment controls.

The 200C EV has a one-hundred sixteen (116.1") inch wheelbase rather than the one-hundred twenty (120.0") inch wheelbase on the 300.

* Source Chrysler (see video at right)

Chrysler has not published any emissions estimate for these vehicles. However, when published, they are highly likely to fall into the same range of figures as the Chevy Volt and Ford Hydrogen I.C.E. When the vehicles are running on battery only emissions are expected to be zero (0), excluding power grid plant emissions of course, and greatly reduced emissions from the small efficient gasoline engines designed to augment electric power.

It is quite certain that emissions figures will be well below the EPA mandated emissions standard of today and the CARB (California Air Resources Board) figures for new cars.

This is the fourth in a series on Future Cars.