Chrysler to Drop First Hybrids, After October Debut

[ben_meyers]

Source: Bloomberg.com

Oct. 28 (Bloomberg) -- Chrysler LLC, the third-largest U.S. automaker, said it will stop making its first gasoline-electric vehicles, which began sales this month, at the end of the year because the plant that builds them is closing.

The hybrid versions of the Dodge Durango and Chrysler Aspen sport-utility vehicles are produced at the Newark, Delaware, factory that Chrysler said last week will shut by Dec. 31. The plant also makes gasoline-only versions of those models. Todd Goyer, a Chrysler spokesman, confirmed the hybrid decision today.

``This vehicle would have done a lot better three or four years ago,'' when demand for SUVs was greater, Jim Hall, principal at 2953 Analytics in Birmingham, Michigan, said of the Chrysler gasoline-electric models.

Chrysler's decision leaves it without plans for any new hybrid models for at least a year. No other major automaker is more dependent on pickup trucks, SUVS and minivans, which have lost sales this year because of high gasoline price. Chrysler already is playing catch-up to competitors such as Toyota Motor Corp., which has sold hybrid models for more than a decade.



Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=a17N0LE2z3pc&refer=home

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But they want a Government handout to stay afloat? How short sighted can you get.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

1. Brilliant!

[MNDemNY]

2. SUV hybrids.......pissing up a rope.

[dixiegrrrrl]

3. Better yet, Hummer Hybrids.

Sheesh.

[Jackpine Radical]

5. Yeah, wow, the super hybrit technology kicks it up from6 to 8.5 mpg.

They'll go like hotcakes!

[Orsino]

9. A 41% increase in fuel economy would be an impressive accomplishment.

If only.

[Jackpine Radical]

4. Any 3 random DUers could come up with a better strategic plan

than what Chrysler did. Jeez, ya gotta wonder what they were thinking. They could have just picked the smallest vehicle in their lineup and hybridized it, and ended up with something that might actually sell...

[global1]

7. Well Now That Gas Prices Are Coming Down What Did You Expect...

(sarcasm)

[glinda]

23. Retrofit Retrofit Retrofit ASAP

[high density]

6. Who is buying Durangos or Aspens?

Nobody.

[Orsino]

8. "This vehicle would have done a lot better three or four years ago..."

Wrong.

Three or four years ago, most of America was still turning up its collective nose at hybrids (hell, still is), and wouldn't have paid the premium.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

20. They still don't get it...

People want fuel economy. They want independence from oil...and not just the foreign variety.

Why are these companies so stupid?

[Orsino]

27. They are as stupid as they have made us.

Until we stop worshiping horsepower, and investing our self-esteem in our automobiles, we won't begin the forward thinking needed to survive the end of the internal combustion engine.

[Confusious]

10. Yep more brillance from Detroit

These execs. If I had a business and one of these guys came to me after getting laid off, I would seriously check to see if he was retarded.

How many times came you fuck up and still have a job? They have no vision of the future, no idea WTF is going on, and washington is shoveling money at them!

[baldguy]

11. And people wonder why Chrysler is having issues competing.

[Megahurtz]

12. Goodbye Goodbye Goodbye

to Stupid Ugly Vehicles!!! WooHoo! :woohoo:

Don't let the door hit you on the way out! :sarcasm:

[Hulk]

13. Can you spell: B L A C K M A I L

I smell a little blackmail possibility here. "We're going to close our plant that makes these hybrids...unless maybe you give us a fat 'load' to keep the plant open"??

Not sure about this one, but I have ZERO respect for American auto companies. We have sat on our asses for the past 45 years and just 'watched' the rest of the world pass us by while we continued to make the fat ass, gas guzzling, inefficient cars. Nice going Detroit.

Nation of morons. We've been riding this "we're #1" bull shit way too long.

[TommyO]

14. My mid-sized American "gas guzzler"

gets better mileage than most of the smaller Japanese-built cars that I looked at. I'm getting a real-world 32mpg highway in a large, comfortable car with a V-6, that's better than my brother gets in his 4-cylinder Accord, and almost as good as my other brother gets in his significantly smaller Civic.

[wuushew]

16. What make and year is your car?

32mpg highway certainly is possible in a V6, but again unless your brother is driving the identical route is a direct comparision with his 4-cyclinder appropriate?


Does your car calculate its own gas mileage via a computer or do you use a gas log?

[Mojorabbit]

21. I inherited a lincoln towncar

when my pop passed. It is huge and the computer says it is getting 24 mph which just amazes me considering how big the thing is.

[CRF450]

25. Thats the same kind of car as the Crown Vic, right?

My dad's 97 Crown Vic gets around 23mpg. Pretty good for a big car with a v8. Hell my Trans Am gets around the same thing, and I'v gotten 31mpg on the interstate once.

[whosinpower]

17. Maybe it is - but not the way you think

Maybe the ONLY way that Chrysler can get a bailout - is if they agree to dump hybrids. Some backroom dealing with the oil barons perhaps, those who are holding most of the strings and most of the money anyways. Just a thought.

[Dont_Bogart_the_Pretzel]

18. Good point

Big Oil is still in control.

[lithiumbomb]

26. no, these models were dead

They're full size SUVs, and the SUV market has totally collapsed. There's just no market for them regardless of the drivetrain. They're killing the entire line, not just the hybrid models. GM is closing two SUV plants in December as well.

[Lost-in-FL]

15. A hybrid with 10 MPG, please... nt

[CRF450]

24. Wrong. Try 20mpg city.

And thats good in my book as I drive a Dodge Dakota which averages me around 16mpg.

[mulah]

19. not good

for the environment.

[Paulie]

22. there are no hybrid mini-vans in the US

The could have owned the segment. Toyota sells two hybrid mini-vans but only in Japan.

Fleet sales to taxi companies and then regular sales to the family market.

Oh well.