Chrysler Says It May Need Electric Cars to Meet Mileage Rules
Chrysler Says It May Need Electric Cars to Meet Mileage Rules
By Gopal Ratnam and Mike Ramsey
Jan. 28 (Bloomberg) — Chrysler LLC, which sold three times
more light trucks than cars in 2007, may not be able to meet new
U.S. fuel-economy standards unless it can develop electric-
powered vehicles, a senior executive said.
Chrysler and other automakers are looking for ways to
increase mileage to meet the 2020 deadline for the government;s
35-miles-per-gallon standard, which is 40 percent higher than the
current mandate. Chrysler;s reliance on trucks means that even a
switch to engines using a combination of gasoline and electricity
– like Toyota Motor Corp.;s Prius — may not be sufficient.
“Without electrification of the fleet, we can;t get to the
goal,;; Reginald Modlin, director of environmental affairs at
Chrysler, said in a Jan. 25 interview.
Chrysler is committed to building such a car by no later
than 2015, Lou Rhodes, who directs Chrysler;s ENVI electric-
powertrain product development, said in an interview this month.
The Auburn Hills, Michigan-based automaker plans to develop the
vehicles with partners in the auto-parts industry and to license
technology from other automakers, Rhodes said.
So-called hybrid gasoline-electric vehicles increase fuel
efficiency by combining a battery-powered electric motor and a
gasoline engine. Chrysler, hoping to further improve efficiency,
showed three concept cars powered solely by electricity at this
month;s North American International Auto Show in Detroit.
Chrysler draws about 75 percent of its sales from light
trucks, according to Autodata Corp. of Woodcliff Lake, New
Jersey. By comparison, trucks make up 61 percent of sales at
General Motors Corp., and about 67 percent at Ford Motor Co.
Overseas automakers depend less on truck sales than their U.S.-
based competitors.
Awaiting Guidelines
Because of their greater weight, hybrid versions of trucks
offer less of a lift in gas mileage than hybrid cars.
The federal government revised fuel-economy standards in
December for the first time in 32 years. Under current
requirements, each automaker;s car fleet must get 27.5 mpg and
light trucks must get 22.2 mpg.
Executives from Toyota, Ford and GM have said they can reach
the new goal without an all-electric fleet. GM plans to start
selling the Chevrolet Volt, a hybrid that can be charged at an
electrical outlet, in 2010.
Automakers are waiting for the National Highway Traffic
Safety Administration to announce how the agency will apply the
new standards. NHTSA could set targets for each vehicle type
based on size or other attributes, as it did for light trucks in
2003, meaning companies would face different fuel efficiency
standards depending on their fleet mix, analysts said.
Chrysler;s 2007 cars had the lowest average fuel economy of
the six top-selling automakers in the U.S., at 28.6 miles per
gallon, according to the NHTSA. The company is already spending
$3 billion to build more efficient engines, transmissions and
axles, with a goal of improving its fleet-wide mileage 5 percent
by 2010.
To contact the reporter on this story:
Gopal Ratnam in Washington at
