Chrysler: Recovery and Green Plans Still a Bit Murky

Chrysler can only go up from here. There is a dearth of new models in showrooms, and the existing product line is exciting very few customers. Sales were down 30 percent in October compared to the previous year, on total volume of 65,000 vehicles. Sales are up only if you compare October to the month immediately preceding it.

The recent spotting of a 2011 300 test mule was hailed as “one of the first signs of life we’ve seen at Chrysler in a while,” by the Detroit News. To add insult to injury, the hometown papers are full of the financial woes of former Chrysler Group chairman Jim Press. He is being pursued by the IRS, and sued by a California credit union for $1.4 million. Press is also having trouble selling his $3 million mansion in Birmingham, Michigan.

But Chrysler says all that is old news. In a marathon eight-hour session November 4 with 400 analysts and journalists, the company outlined a recovery plan that sees it dramatically downsizing and leaning heavily on platforms from Sergio Marchionne’s Fiat (which owns 20 percent of the company). The company is supposed to double sales, pay back its debt to the U.S. taxpayers and become profitable in 2011. One of the brightest prospects is the sale of the very nice (but also very small) Fiat 500 in the U.S., but that requires a lengthy gearing up of U.S.-spec production in Toluca, Mexico (and a late 2010 introduction).

There will be new versions of the Dodge Charger, the aforementioned Chrysler 300 and Jeep Grand Cherokee. Chrysler says it will be basing its future cars on fewer platforms: Just four “architectures” for 21 vehicles, says Scott Kunelsman, an engineering vice president.

Chrysler cars and trucks will get more fuel efficient, says Marchionne, citing a 25 percent fleet improvement by 2014. But the company’s green strategy is still somewhat unclear. There was little said about it during the eight-hour session, and the fate of the battery powered ENVI cars (ranging from a minivan to a Tesla-chasing sports car) is unknown.

Electrification was represented by a single timeline slide during the presentation. The hybrid version of the Dodge RAM 1500 pickup will be followed by Department of Energy-sponsored demonstration fleets of plug-in hybrid versions of the RAM 500 and a minivan in 2011. The battery strategy is slated to begin with light commercial vehicles adapted for the smart grid circa 2012, followed by a vaguely described “additional battery electric vehicle applications” between 2013 and 2016. It doesn’t inspire confidence that the slide refers to plug-in hybrid and battery “tehnologies.”

Efforts to talk to Chrysler about its EV rollouts were met with the silence that’s been reigning at the company for many months. “We’re not giving interviews now,” said spokesman Nick Cappa.

With Fiat, Chrysler may not have found the perfect fleet electrification partner. European carmakers are heavily invested in diesel technology, and have been slow to develop plug-in hybrids and battery cars. There are no ready-made Fiat electric platforms for Chrysler vehicles to hop a ride on. Chrysler did highlight improved diesel performance (Multijet II), and an interesting Jeep Wrangler diesel for the fourth quarter of 2010 with a stop-start system that will shut it down at traffic lights. The company claims reduced fuel consumption and a three- to five-percent reduction in carbon dioxide emissions.

The 500 is the first company product to benefit from low-emission variable-valve “Multiair” technology applied to its 1.4-liter, 100 horsepower engine. A 10 percent power increase is said to accompany a 10 percent drop in CO2 emissions, plus larger drops in other pollutants.

As soon as Chrysler sheds more light on all this, it will be reported here..