Today Chrysler jumped on the Electric Vehicle bandwagon by announcing that they will release three electric autos by 2010. This announcement was a surprise which came on the heels of the GM Volt announcement last week. Some speculate that the announcement was timed with a possible vote this week on a subsidy/loan to the auto industry to spur the development of electric and hybrid vehicles. Chrysler denies this.
The three vehicles run the gamut of the categories of vehicles sold, and they look like normal autos, not space age bubble cars, such as the Prius, the Insight, and the GM Volt. However, they could pull a GM-esque move and make styling changes at the last minute. Chrysler is releasing a Minivan based on their Caravan model, a new sports car based on a Lotus design, and one based on a Jeep Wrangler Unlimited.
The Wrangler Unlimited model shown below is physically looks the same as the existing Wranglers sold today, which is interesting because for an electric vehicle it is not aerodynamic at all, which as GM claimed is the reason behind the change in the Volt form factor. However, the model the used for the press event today is quite honestly the ugliest Jeep I have ever seen. It is all white, including the hard top, and all of the areas you would expect black plastic is chrome. Man, is it ugly.
I am very interested to see what happens with the designs as we get closer to the release if it will actually maintain the form factors and specs. Guess we will all have to wait until 2010 to see what happens.
Jeep EV
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