REPORT: Dodge Circuit DOA? Not according to Chrysler
Dodge Circuit EV concept - Click above for a high-res gallery
In a report primarily focused on future product plans for British sports car maker Lotus, AutoCar happens to mention at the end the Dodge Circuit program has been killed as a result of the current financial crisis. The Circuit is the electric sports car first unveiled by Chrysler last fall and is based on the Lotus Europa.
Last November at the LA Auto Show, Lotus Engineering director, Roger Becker acknowledged that the British company was negotiating with Chrysler to build the Circuit. Chrysler meanwhile has committed to building an electric car beginning in 2010 although it has not said which of the five EV prototypes it has has shown will be first to market. Most observers have expected the Circuit to be the first out of the gate. Chrysler spokesman Nick Cappa told ABG that in spite of the current bankruptcy filing "there has been no change to the product plan." Chrylser ENVI president Lou Rhodes remains "jazzed" about the EV development program.
Rhodes told us in a recent interview that there are five Circuit prototypes running in the US with more in Europe, which points to that being the first car. While Cappa wouldn't absolutely confirm the status of the Circuit he did reiterate that EVs were coming starting next year and further announcements were pending. With Fiat set to take control of Chrysler if it emerges from bankruptcy, anything is possible, but for now, the Circuit still seems the most likely candidate for 2010 production.
- Related: Dodge Circuit EV First Drive
Gallery: Dodge Circuit EV
[Source: Autocar]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Sasparilla 4:49PM (5/10/2009)
As long as Chrysler is around in 2010/2011 I don't think this car is a stretch for them at all - as it won't cost them much to develop. They just have to integrate (for the most part) the components - not an easy job, but alot easier and cheaper than developing a new combustion engine vehicle. They're just doing what Tesla did here and it'll be a drop in the bucket to get their "electric" badge. As long as their around expect this vehicle, maybe a little delay on it depending on how things go.
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MarkR 8:36AM (5/11/2009)
why would it be DOA? when you have thug in chef obam, Lap dog of the unions bailing out this crapy company. this car will be the foundation for a non-viable government funded car company.
I for one will not buy a Christler or GM product untill they are viable again and the government has gotten out of the auto business and the unions have been put in the place they belong.
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Evie 8:53AM (5/11/2009)
This car is a third party developed machine that was mostly developed by someone else and Lotus. It will sell in such low volumes and if the press is right that it was delayed will have zero impact on the company financial results for years. So put this in the category of insignificant, low volume, and not really developed by Chrysler directly.
Chrysler has much bigger fish to fry, like selling something profitable in volume if they ever hop to emerge from bankruptcy, they have a scary path ahead of them right now and a less than compelling product line up and failure or being a multiple year ward of the state look like their likely possiblities.
Tell Evie how they offer different products, where those products are produced, and projected numbers over the next two years and you see the tremendous problem. They were having sales problems before the economic crisis, bad product portfolio in a bad market, well that is just unacceptable, and Cerberus was certainly driving while they got in that situation.
Remember, Mercedes Daimler lost billions with their a team, and a full effort in a good market with a relatively more competitive product situation. Importing the Fiat 500 with the exchange rate at 1.35 is not going to kick up their profitability. The Nardelli half baked desperation move to Fiat has to be rejected unless Fiat can show better impact on their products near term. They know the products they will have for the next two years, explain how those are going to sell. Right now giant price cuts starting a price war that hurts all producers is Chrysler's main contribution.
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Evie 8:56AM (5/11/2009)
This car will do nothing for the profitability of Chrysler. They have to get better products that consumers want to buy out quickly, and we haven't heard how Fiat can do that in the next two years. They are either a ward of the state with huge subsidies or they never emerge from bankruptcy. Fiat knows they can't change the product line up for two years significantly, and with the exchange rate at 1.35 bringing stuff over from Europe is not going to help much. Chrysler's biggest problem is they have uncompetitive product and government money can't fix that for years. Bad product portfolio in a bad market equals a company that can only start a price war that hurts all vendors.
Unless Fiat can show compelling product plan for quick impact Chrysler maybe shouldn't emerge from bankruptcy, and by that plan it should show country of manufacture, projected volumes, and profitability using exchange rates if imports are involved. The auto industry is better off with Chrysler gone otherwise, and the half baked desperation plan of Nardelli and Cerberus to give Fiat entry into our market and 35% equity for putting up no cash just doesn;t sound strategically healthy with such a poor product portfolio over the next two years, this is a poor risk. Two very healthy companies is better than three weak companies.
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Evie Futura 9:31AM (5/11/2009)
Now Ford wants big money then there will be the auto parts makers, the dealers, and Chrysler getting subsidized to start a fire sale that hurts the whole industry is just plain wrong. The Obama administration has opened a poltical pandoras box they have underestimated, and Chrysler is looking at becoming a cash sinkhole ward of the state that hurts the industry, not exactly what the public wants.
This will politically hurt the administration if they let it move forward, and the Cerberus Fiat plan was half baked, but the unintended consequences are growing rapidly, there is a new type of special interest that current company selecting, government money giving policies have created.
Stay tuned now with Ford asking for money, you can count on government to get detailed business issues wrong. The list of people in line or they will be destroyed without money is getting longer and longer, time for a new posture from the Obama administration.
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