Posted on 12/23/2021 5:51:38 AM PST by Red Badger
Stellantis’ mysterious concept EV now has a name, and it’s called the Airflow. Revealed during the brand’s EV Day earlier this summer, the Chrysler crossover concept looks to be sized relative to the Tesla Model Y and Ford Mustang Mach-E, with familiar nods to late Chrysler-branded products.
Digital rendering of the Chrysler Airflow EV concept on display.Photo: Stellantis
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This EV concept is part of Stellantis’ roadmap it plans to reveal at the 2022 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) on January 5 in Las Vegas, what Stellantis is calling it’s “transformation to clean mobility and seamlessly connected customer experiences.”
The Airflow looks to be a potential competitor to the Tesla Model Y, Ford Mustang Mach-E and Volkswagen ID.4. Even if this vehicle even made it to actual production, it’s difficult to see Chrysler’s offering sway buyers in the Chrysler direction.
Plus it may not be ready for years. Ralph Gilles, Chief Design Officer of multiple Stellantis brands, including Chrysler, suggested the platform the concept would ride on doesn’t go into production until 2024—several years after its competitors have gone to market.
It’s well known that Stellantis’ budget luxury brand has held on this long with Fiat’s life support, as the brand quietly reduced to two vehicle offerings – the Pacifica Minivan (including its hybrid relation), and the dying Chrysler 300.
So why did Stellantis decide to brand their new cutting-edge EV as a Chrysler of all things?
It could be signaling a return to form for Chrysler – which stands as the vastly underperforming brand in sales and public perception compared to its brawny siblings Jeep, Dodge and Ram.
You could also ask, will Jeep and Dodge get their own versions of the same car? If something similar was released in the Jeep and Dodge brands, would people even consider the Chrysler? Those brands would almost certainly have a more muscular look to them which would certainly be more fitting in today’s market compared to the smooth and flowing lines of the Chrysler.
More competition in any automotive space isn’t a bad thing, but in Chrysler’s case, the odds may not be in its favor.
Rare 1934 Chrysler Airflow Coupe.....................
Why do all electric cars look even more alike than SUVs?
Nice coal burner.
When is the push for development and deployment of massive quantities of nextgen nuclear plants? Because no one is going anywhere in all these electric cars being forced on us with doing this.
Get used to walking and riding your bike like the Green extremists really want.
Form follows function...........................
Leave it Chrysler to reinvent the wheel. All passenger cars for the last twenty years are aerodynamic, with all the styling of a black jellybean. Chrysler can’t make a vehicle that lasts more than 100,000 miles now,no matter what shape is. People are already starting to sour on EV’s, great time for Chrysler to jump in.
I get it, all the design teams are trying to solve the same set of problems with similar constraints, capabilities, and priorities but come on. There's got to be something more to set these apart than do you want your LED headlights to slant up, down, or be round...
And we are supposed to take this article seriously? Any woke car company which is supposedly pinning its future on all electric vehicle other than Tesla is already dead. We have seen the debacle of the Chevy Bolt... owners have been told not to park them inside or charge them “unattended” overnight even after the “software update”. And Chevy/GM has typically got its act together better than Chrysler/Dodge.
“Why do all electric cars look even more alike than SUVs?”
If this is not rhetorical, then we could speculate:
1. Front is “grill-less” because there is a lack of any need for cooling air getting to a radiator;
2. Aerodynamics demand some roundness at both front and rear;
3. Current fashion;
4. Lack of risk taking on management’s part and the designers;
5. Add your own possibilities . . .
I agree that it is an apparent fact.
Chrysler/Dodge/FIAT..........................
The problems that go with having more EVs still aren’t being solved, but actually made worse. I think it was suggested awhile back that charging sources for all EVs be “green renewables” while leaving the normal sources of power for current needs of home & industry. There are just too many problems associated with solar & wind power, so if there are those who who think we must use it then let these sources,limited as they are, be used SOLELY for charging EVs.
Crysler is Jeep. that’s all.
I suppose Ram must not be totally discounted but may not actually contribute except at the margin
Because companies outsource more and more. The same adherents to a design go from one to another. "If we could sell it to GM, we can sell it to Chrysler." (Or reverse like the Chrysler PT Cruiser and the Chevy HHR).
I was trying to cut them a little slack. A friend of mine bought a used Fiat Spider 40 years ago. He needed basic transportation. I warned him that the Fiat would be a maintenance nightmare. We chased down one problem after another with it. By the time that he bought it they had been in production for ten years, but they still hadn’t ironed out all the issues with it.
We went to the local Dodge dealer looking for a new truck.
The cheapest one on the lot was $50k!.
AND
They have a $3-5k ABOVE STICKER PRICE ‘MARKET ALLOWANCE”...................................
I owned a FIAT X1/9 back in the early 80’s.
Spent more time UNDER IT than IN IT!.....................
True, my cousins have worked at Chrysler for years and are always reminding me that they can get me some type of deal on a new Jeep. They typically do not mention the other offerings, but they do still make some good-looking cars and trucks. We own a Stratus and a rare Intrepid Police Interceptor. The Stratus has weird computer problems that are hard to trace down. I have spent a fortune on sensors for it. After my experiences with Dodge computers, I wouldn't want to go there with an all-electric vehicle.
That was my friend's and my experience. He eventually had to practically give it away. Ironically, at least in this discussion he replaced it with a Dodge Dart with a slant 6 engine and drove that thing's wheels off with basically no maintenance at all. But even dressed up the Dart was not much of a chick magnet.
Government mandates. I used to call it regulations but now it’s all mandates.
That’s why every car looks the same too and why everything is going to suv shapes.
The governments (all of them) put up so many rules that they dictate how something is going to work. And what engine it gets. And seating.
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