U.S. automaker Chrysler LLC announced on Tuesday that it submitted three proposals outlining a $448-million plan to the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to rapidly bring Electric Vehicles (EV) and Plug-in Hybrid-electric Vehicles (PHEV) to market.
Chrysler LLC applied for two initiatives established by the DOE–the Electric Drive Vehicle Battery and Component Manufacturing Initiative and the Transportation Electrification Initiative. Both are designed to speed up development, demonstration, evaluation and manufacturing of EVs and PHEVs.
The programs require a 50/50 cost-share. Chrysler and its partners would pay $224 million to be matched by DOE. Funding would include $83 million for a new research and manufacturing center in Michigan that the company said would be online by 2010 and would be capable of producing 20,000 vehicles a year.
Chrysler, which has been operating in bankruptcy since the end of
April, said in a release that the proposal will "enable the production
of commercially viable products in a shorter time frame."
Today a judge is expected to rule on teh company’s plans to sell assets to the U.S. and Canadian governments, as well as Chrysler’s union and Italian car company Fiat SpA (F.MI).
If approved, Chrysler also plans to use funds to build a demonstration fleet of PHEVs and EVs. The $365-million submission for the Transportation Electrification Initiative would go towards 365 test-fleet vehicles for use by select customers and partners.
The test fleet would include 100 Chrysler Town & Country PHEV minivans and 100 Dodge Ram PHEV pickup trucks. The company said it has established more than a dozen partnerships with city and local governments, research and development authorities, utility companies and universities to test the PHEVs.
In addition, through a partnership between Chrysler LLC’s ENVI group and the U.S. Postal Service (USPS), Chrysler LLC will deliver 165 Chrysler Town & Country EV cargo minivans for daily mail service in four regions throughout the country.
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