Chrysler Hybrids Dead With Plant Closure
October 23, 2008
By Bill Visnic
DETROIT - Chrysler hybrids, we hardly knew ye.
Just a week after Chrysler LLC gets final Environmental Protection Agency confirmation of mileage for its first-ever production hybrid-electric vehicles, the 2009 Dodge Durango Hybrid and 2009 Chrysler Aspen Hybrid, the company has announced it is accelerating the closure of the Newark, Del., assembly plant that builds them.
Edmunds.com blogsite Edmunds Green Car Advisor reports the models have been in production for only a couple of months, adding that a Chrysler spokesman says the company is hastening the closure of the Newark plant because of freefalling sales of fullsize SUVs. Production at Newark ceases Dec. 31, almost a full year ahead of Chrysler's previously announced schedule.
The hybrid versions of the Durango and Aspen are Chrysler's only entries in the hybrid market. Here's how we assessed the situation last November, shortly after Chrysler and the United Auto Workers union ratified a new 4-year pact:
"Chrysler, in its former life with Daimler, invested time and resources (along with partners GM and BMW) to develop a hybrid powertrain specifically for the Durango, so it's only reasonable to expect the aged SUV to remain, if nothing else but a necessary shell in which Chrysler can present its hybrid credentials."
Durango sales are off 54 percent for the year and dropped 78 percent last month, when the company sold just 616 units.
With the announcement of a quicker closure for the Delaware plant than the originally planned late-2009 timeframe, it appears even the investment in the technology and the positive environmental-perception that come from having hybrid models no longer is of significance as Chrysler seemingly is unraveling amid heavy speculation its majority owner, Cerberus Capital Management, is desperate to exit the rapidly eroding auto business.
Chrysler also announced it will cut to one production shift from two at its Toledo North Assembly plant, home of the Jeep Liberty and Dodge Nitro, models which also have experienced significant sales losses this year. Through September, Nitro sales were down 46 percent and Liberty sales had dropped by 21 percent.
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