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Chrysler signs hybrid and EV R&D agreement
Fiat Chrysler to collaborate with Ontario's McMaster University on vehicle electrificationChrysler has signed off on a five-year R&D deal with Ontario's McMaster University to develop hybrid and electric powertrains. The $US18.2 million project includes funding support from the Canadian government.
The two parties will work towards what they describe as "next-generation, energy-efficient, high-performance electrified powertrains and powertrain components," combining the talents of 20 Chrysler engineers with dozens of McMaster faculty members and research students.
Alongside the powertrain research work, Chrysler and McMaster have signed parallel deals covering weight reduction technologies for future product, and socio-economic cost-benefit analyses to meet the needs of Canadian consumers. All up, the projects are worth close to $US25 million.
The pair will work on a series of prototype architectures and core components including power electronics, motors, hardware control and energy management systems, along with the central software integrating it all.
On the face of it, the announcement represents an abrupt backflip in Chrysler's electrification strategy. The company has been off to a slow start down the path to alt-power. It rolled out a couple of mild hybrid models in the US in 2008, then quickly killed them.
Promises of other product including an electrified Jeep Wrangler and a two-seat sports car came to nothing. A fleet of Dodge Ram PHEVs has put in more than 1.5 million test kilometres since 2011, but hasn't made it to market either.
Since then, Chrysler's sole contribution to the burgeoning sector has been for subsequent merger partner Fiat, the all-electric 500e (pictured) developed in Detroit and sold only in California.
As recently as the middle of this year, Fiat Chrysler group's global powertrain boss, Bob Lee, told media the company believed the market wasn't ready for electrification and the price premiums it imposes on consumers. In the foreseeable future, it would therefore be sinking its energies into downsizing and turbocharging, realising the considerable potential offered by internal combustion technology to squeeze more power from less petrol and diesel, he said.
Then, in September, the company began advertising for engineers, pointing to broader plans for the future.
"Legislative pressure and socioeconomic forces are compelling the auto industry to deliver unparalleled technological advancement at an unprecedented rate," Mr Lee said in a statement announcing the research deal. "This project harnesses the kind of intellectual capital and collaboration required to respond to such challenges."
True to Mr Lee's original assertions, affordability will be critical to any product emerging from the project. But not at the cost imposed on the company by the electric Fiat 500e, which is said by group CEO Sergio Marchionne to sell at a $US10K per-unit loss.
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Written byJeremy Bass
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