The Gear Shift

Chrysler took the stage again this afternoon – and again, without significant splash. Disappointing to me because I like the exciting ones – especially if celebs are involved.  What can I say?

So, with intros only from the Chrysler execs, they brought out three concept cars – one for each of their brands. (See full article on the Chrysler concepts.)

Jeep Renegade Concept

The Jeep Renegade is a two-seater off-road vehicle that has the most sustainable materials than any of the Chrysler cars. My two favorite parts of this car are: (1) The paint job - the paint color has actually been mixed into the car’s composite panels, eliminating pollution during the paint process, and (2) The Interior – you can actually hose it down!  While of course being a two-seater, this isn’t a family car, but can you imagine bringing that feature to a sedan or SUV?  Just wash all the Cheerios, cookie crumbs and Legos down the drain at the bottom!  LOL :)

It’s powered by an electric drive system with a diesel backup. It can get about 110 mpg, mostly without any emissions.

Dodge ZEO Concept

Next out, the Dodge Zeo, a low, long car with HUGE wheels (23” to be exact). The grill in the front is lit up by LEDs. It’s a battery-powered electric car with a 250 mile range. It costs about $.03 per mile to operate and can go 0 to 60 in less than 6 seconds.  Are we in HEMI territory?

Lastly, out breezes the Chrysler ecoVoyager, described as a “living room on wheels.” (I’m not sure what size house these execs live in, but I’m guessing the size of the car is closer to a coat closet for them than a living room – it looked so small!)

Chrysler ecoVoyager Concept

It’s got 4 individual chairs for each passenger’s personal comfort. The goal was to make the interior simple, but they went way beyond simple to stark. I mean, there are almost no buttons at all on this thing – how do you know what the features of this car are? What fun things can it do?

This car has a 300 mile driving range with the battery and can get 110 mpg.  With its shallow hood and low roof, from the front, this looked like a squashed VW Beetle to me.  As you can probably tell, I was under-whelmed by this one.

See the photo gallery of all the Chrysler concepts.

|  Add to del.icio.us |  digg this

• #1 Comment from gt500cb
  1/21/08 9:19 PM | Permalink

  I fell in love with the look of the dodge zeo and my kids loved it to and i like the fact that it is electric no pollution!!! I just wish there were some way of actually making it availible to the general public instead of coming up with a beatiful car  like that and just teasing all of us!!!!! It is a bit slow on take off but with a few  minor modifications it could do better.