Deja Vu: Chrysler Brings Detroit Show EV Concepts to Geneva

To the surprise of no one, cash-strapped Chrysler LLC won't be performing any global premieres at next week's Geneva Motor Show. Instead, the American automaker will showcase its electric vehicle future (that is, if it makes it through the economic crisis) with the European premieres of the Chrysler 200C EV concept vehicle and Dodge Circuit EV prototype, both of which made their debut at January's Detroit Auto Show.

The stylishly-penned Chrysler 200C EV mid-size sedan concept comes equipped the firm's ENVI electric-drive system that combines a small gasoline engine and integrated electric generator. According to Chrysler, the rear-wheel drive 200C has 64 kilometers (40 miles) of all-electric range, and a total-driving range of 644-kilometer (400-mile).

The Lotus Elise-based Dodge Circuit EV is a sport proposition that boasts a range of 241 to 322 kilometers (150 to 200 miles) with zero gasoline consumption and zero tailpipe emissions.

Dodge EV: All-Electric 268HP Coupe Study Based on the Lotus Europa

At its World Headquarters in Auburn Hills today, Chrysler LLC revealed three all-electric prototype vehicles, the Dodge EV, Jeep EV and Chrysler EV, promising to have one of them available in the North American markets as soon as 2010 followed shortly after by Europe. Speaking at the presentation, Chrysler LLC’s CEO Bob Nardelli said: “The introduction of the Chrysler, Jeep and Dodge electric vehicles provide a glimpse of the very near future, and demonstrates that we are serious and well along in the development of bringing EVs to market.” -Continued

We’ll start off our presentation of Chrysler’s all-electric-drive prototypes with the Tesla-like Dodge EV which is evidently based on the Lotus Europa. First of all we never liked the British coupe’s kit-car appearance and there’s no reason why that should change just because Chrysler threw in a set of Dodge logos and twin black racing stripes.

Styling aside, the two-passenger, rear-wheel-drive Dodge EV gets an electric-drive system that consists of the three main components: an electric motor, the lithium-ion battery stack and an integrated power controller.

The electric motor generates an output of 200 kW or 268 HP along with a massive 650 Nm (480 lb.-ft.) of torque, accelerating the Dodge EV from standstill to 60 mph (96 km/h) in less than five seconds, with quarter-mile times of 13 seconds. According to Chrysler, the Dodge EV has a top speed of over than 120 mph or 196 km/h.

The lithium-ion batteries, which can be charged from any standard 110-volt household outlet in eight hours (4 hours by using a typical 220-volt household appliance power outlet), offer the Dodge EV an adequate driving range of 150 to 200 miles (240 – 320 km).