The Chrysler Group has revamped its powertrain line-up as it bids to slash fuel consumption and reduce emissions.

It is hoped that the improvements will equate to an overall fuel efficiency boost of 25 per cent during the 2010-2014 period with the company also revealing a progressive electrification strategy.

Chrysler will rapidly apply several Fiat powertrain technologies including: Multiair; direct injection; turbocharging; and transmission systems; with more than 80 per cent of its existing line-up to undergo a complete makeover by 2014. Let’s take a look at what is planned:

-         New four-cylinder engines: Chrysler will expand its four-cylinder engine options with the introduction of Fiat Powertrain’s 1.4litre, in-line four-cylinder fully integrated robotized engine that includes Multiair. Two variations of the engine will be made available – naturally aspirated and turbo.

-         V-6 Pentastar engine: Its V-6 petrol engine line-up will be streamlined from six options to a new, fuel efficient, 3.6litre V-6 Pentastar engine which will be included in the new 2011 Jeep Grand Cherokee. The Pentastar engine is the company’s most advanced six cylinder engine and delivers a fuel economy improvement of up to eight per cent on average when compared to previous Chrysler V-6 engines.

-         New transmission technology: Starting with its mid-size D-segment cars in 2010, Chrysler will begin using Fiat’s six-speed Dual Dry Clutch Transmission that delivers a 10 per cent improvement in fuel efficiency while also enhancing performance.

-         Vehicle electrification: The company has revealed a new engineering model focused on vehicle electrification. This five-year plan includes the development of a Ram 1500 with hybrid capabilities for 2010 and a small test fleet of plug-in hybrid Ram 1500 pick-up trucks. Chrysler is also considering a small electric delivery van application for 2011-2012.

Rapid downsizing, improved fuel economy and simplification of the company’s engine line-up – they are the key elements of Chrysler’s new powertrain strategy.

With a heavy reliance on the rapid transfer of Fiat Group technology for Multiair, Paolo E Ferrero, the senior vice president of Chrysler Powertrain outlined the company’s new five-year business plan during a briefing at Chrysler headquarters. According to Ferrero, the Chrysler Group will be a global centre of engineering competence for hybrid and electric vehicles, both for the Fiat Group and the Chrysler Group.

He outlined the company’s goals across a number of areas:

-         Diesels: Fiat diesel engines will be adapted into Chrysler applications, and starting on Euro5 compliant engines the company will introduce a new generation of common rail with the Multijet2 injector. This uses a new balanced servo valve that delivers high accuracy in fuel injection quantity control as well as up to three per cent lower carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and up to 20 per cent fewer nitrogen oxide emissions.

-         Petrol engines: Chrysler plans to introduce the next generation Pentastar V6 in Q2 2010. Its new V6 family will replace all existing V6 engines from 2.7-4.0litres with the first application to be the Jeep Cherokee in mid 2010. The company will also apply Fiat technology across its line-up including the implementation of tetrafuel, start & stop technologies, Multiair, CNG and bi-fuel.

-         Transmissions: It is expected that the company will phase out its existing four-speed transverse transmission for front-wheel drive and concentrate on improving the existing six-speed and moving to use the Fiat C635 dual dry clutch transmission.

-         Electrification: Chrysler still expects to introduce its two-mode hybrid Dodge RAM 1500 in 2010 with a roll-out of a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle demo fleet supported by DOE funding in 2011. Battery electric vehicles will follow.

It was the top-selling Chrysler group vehicle outside North America in 2008, and now a new version of the Dodge Caliber will make an eagerly anticipated debut at the Frankfurt Motor Show.

The new vehicle is fitted with a 2.2litre Euro 5 compliant common-rail diesel engine and paired to a six-speed manual transmission that produces 120kW and 320Nm of torque – that’s 16 per cent more power, three per cent more torque and 25 per cent more towing capability than the previous diesel engine.

Fuel consumption has also been improved by five per cent as the vehicle achieves a 40.6mpg rating; while carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions have been slashed by three per cent to just 154g/km.

Among the features that allow the new Dodge Caliber to make such an extensive list of improvements are forged steel connecting rods, aluminium head and pistons and a fourth-generation direct-injection system that has a common rail pressurised at 1800 bar providing weight reduction, performance and durability. Passenger refinement has also been enhanced thanks to dual balance shafts and sound deadening materials.

A 2.0litre World engine replaces a 1.8litre engine with four per cent more power and 13 per cent more torque. If you want even greater performance, a 2.4litre four cylinder engine is available that delivers 125kW and 220Nm of torque.

Yesterday we told you how the cash for clunkers scheme has enjoyed early success in the USA. Today we take a closer look at how each manufacturer has faired as US auto sales slowed their decline throughout the month of July.

In all, passenger car sales dropped 10.6 per cent to 566,527 with hybrids having a particularly good month. Reported sales jumped 31.8 per cent year on year to 35,429 units – that represents a 3.55 per cent new vehicles sales market share for the month, the highest monthly share to date.

Let’s take a look at the results from each major manufacturer:

Chrysler: Total US sales for July stood at 88,900 units, a decrease of nine per cent year on year, although up 30 per cent compared to June.

Ford: The US manufacturer posted the first year-on-year sales gains of any major car manufacturer in the US market with total sales climbing two per cent to 158,838 units. The company had an exceptionally strong month with hybrid sales which leapt by 323 per cent year on year to 5,353 units.

Honda: The Japanese manufacturer posted total July vehicle sales of 114,690 – that’s a decline of 17.3 per cent compared to July 2008 although it was the company’s highest volume month so far this year. Sales of the Civic Hybrid plunged by 71.8 per cent to just 969 units while the Honda Insight Hybrid posted 2,295 units.

General Motors: A total of 189,443 vehicles were sold in July, that’s a 19.4 per cent decline year on year but the July results were the largest in 10 months. GM delivered a total of 1,487 hybrid vehicles in the month – an increase of 36.3 per cent year on year.

Nissan: Reported sales in July stood at 71,847 units, a decrease of 24.6 per cent year on year. The company sold 1,030 units of its Altima Hybrid, which represented a 44.1 per cent increase year on year.

Toyota: Reported July sales of 174,872 represented an 11.4 per cent decline year on year. However, sales were up 27.7 per cent compared to June and hybrid sales increased to 24,295 – an increase of 19.3 per cent year on year. The all-new redesigned Prius faired particularly well with best-ever July sales of 19,173 units, up 29.7 per cent compared to a year ago.

It’s fair to say that Chrysler has taken more than its fair share of hits in recent months. Its partnership with Fiat failed to get off to a rousing start as June sales plummeted by 42 per cent – but now the company is hitting back.

Fiat has now brought two of its greenest – and most impressive – innovations to Chrysler in the form of the Fiat 500 and the Multi-Air, a new engine technology that boosts fuel economy by at least 10 per cent.

Chrysler will build and sell the Fiat 500 model in North America. It will be available in four versions – the standard hatchback, a 500CC convertible, a station wagon and a sporty 500 Abarth from Fiat’s racing partner. A four-wheel drive utility vehicle is also said to be planned.

The manufacturer will hope that its version of the vehicle can match the popularity of the Fiat 500 in Europe – it was recently named as the Car of the Year. In the United States, it is expected to compete with the MINI Cooper as well as the Scion iQ.

Meanwhile, the Multi-Air system brings Chrysler an engine technology that has been long-awaited. The engine replaces traditional camshafts and valves with electronically controlled hydraulic valves, meaning the opening of each can be varied individually. Customising the air flow into each cylinder and the spark timing uses less fuel and cuts carbon dioxide emissions by at least 10 per cent.  

Of course Multi-Air technology comes at a price but it is still roughly the same as a diesel engine, which typically cost around 10-20 per cent more to build than petrol engines.

It seems like a great idea in theory – the US Government is backing up its calls for the public to move to green cars by buying some of its own. However, the practise of the Government Services Administration’s (GSA) orders for 14,105 fuel efficient vehicles has come in for criticism.

The GSA has spent $210million in Recovery Act funding – an average of $14,888 per vehicle – on its new fuel efficient line-up. However, some of the vehicles it has chosen have raised eyebrows.

For example, 2,933 vehicles have been ordered from Chrysler despite the fact that the manufacturer does not include any hybrids in its line-up with the exception of the Durango/Aspen line. The Cynical Synapse website suggests that at a $5,000 premium over the non-hybrid model, it is barely worth paying for a three-six mpg improvement at a meagre 20mpg city/22mph highway rating.   

GM, it suggests, has fuel efficient vehicles that are in the same mould as Chrysler’s. They have an average rating of 22mpg city/32mph highway with hybrid vehicles only achieving marginally better mpg ratings than their conventional counterparts.

So far GSA has declined to identify the models in its line-up, prompting more questions about how significant the buys are. The idea of replacing vehicles on a one to one basis with those with a higher mpg rating is open to speculation. While a mile or two better rating is significant across a fleet, this is undermined if it’s offset by premium costs for hybrids.  

There are also questions about the claim that this will help autoworkers as Ford, GM and Chrysler all have significant backlogs of unsold vehicles. Significantly too, GSA bought 22,300 flex-fuel vehicles last year according to the website – and bought a total of 68,000 vehicles in 2008. So this latest gesture is likely to be far from a turning point for the industry.

What do you make of criticism of the GSA’s green car buying? Leave a comment with your thoughts.

You don’t have to be a motoring enthusiast to have caught the news about the Chrysler Group LLC and the Fiat Group finalising their global strategic alliance. So how will the alliance work?

The idea is that the new Chrysler will have the resources, technology and worldwide distribution network to compete on a global scale. Fiat will contribute its world-class technology, platforms and powertrains for small- and medium-size cars, which will allow the company to offer an expanded product line-up which will include environmentally friendly vehicles.

Chrysler will also benefit from Fiat’s management expertise in business turnaround, as well as its international distribution network with particular focus on Russia and Latin America.

Sergio Marchionne, the new chief executive officer of Chrysler Group LLC, described it as a very significant day not only for Chrysler and its employees but for the global automotive industry as a whole.

“We intend to build on Chrysler’s culture of innovation and Fiat’s complementary technology and expertise to expand Chrysler’s product portfolio both in North America and overseas,” he said.

“Those Chrysler operations assumed by the new company that were idled during this process will soon be back up and running, and work is already under way on developing new environmentally friendly, fuel-efficient, high-quality vehicles that we intend to become Chrysler’s hallmark going forward.”

Under the terms of the agreement, the company formerly known as Chrysler LLC has sold substantially all of its assets without certain debts and liabilities to a new company that will be known as Chrysler Group LLC.

The Group in turn issued a subsidiary of Fiat a 20 per cent equity investment on a fully diluted basis in the new company. Fiat’s equity interest will increase in increments up to a total of 35 per cent in the event that certain milestones are achieved. Fiat however, cannot take a majority stake in Chrysler until all taxpayer funds are repaid.

The end of the slump in the automotive sector appears far from over as total sales of light duty vehicles in the USA during May 2009 were revealed to have decreased by 33.7 per cent compared to the same month in the previous year.

Sales of passenger cars fell by 38.6 per cent to 488,045 units; while sales of light trucks fell by 27.2 per cent to 437,779. Hybrids were not immune from the slump either as sales dropped by 28.5 per cent to 25,693 units.

However, there is some light at the end of the tunnel. For one, the May 2009 results were the highest of the year so far. Secondly, hybrids held a 2.8 per cent share of new vehicle sales – the best monthly result so far this year.

Here is how each manufacturer faired:

Chrysler: The manufacturer saw its sales drop by 47 per cent compared to May 2008 to just 79,010 units sold. May did however represent its best retail month of the year so far with 74,741 units sold.

Ford: Retaining the number two position in the US market, Ford (along with its brands Lincoln and Mercury) reported sales of 155,954 – down 24.3 per cent compared to the previous year. This also represented Ford’s highest market share in three years with sales up 20 per cent compared to April 2009. Sales of the company’s hybrids totalled 3,906 setting three new sales records.

General Motors: Despite concerns about its future, GM performed relatively well with 190,881 light duty vehicle sales – a decrease of 29 per cent. It actually gained share for the second consecutive month. A total of 1,739 GM hybrid vehicles were delivered – that’s a 39 per cent increase compared to the previous year.

Honda: Total vehicle sales in May reached 98,334 – that’s down 41.5 per cent year-on-year. The Accord was the volume leader with 22,597 units sold while combined sales of the Civic and Civic Hybrid dropped 61 per cent. The new Honda Insight did help to boost sales however – 2,780 models were sold meaning hybrid sales of Honda cars increased by 3.5 per cent.

Nissan: Sales fell by 33.1 per cent for Nissan North America, down to 67,489 units. The Altima remained the volume leader although sales of the Altima Hybrid dropped by 78.5 per cent to just 345 units.

Toyota: Vehicle sales in May fell by 40.7 per cent to 152,583 units for Toyota. The Camry and Camry Hybrid were the volume leaders with monthly sales of 31,325 units while the Prius posted May sales of 10,091 units – down 32.8 per cent. Total hybrid sales in May reached 14,846 – down 43 per cent year on year.

Chrysler LLC has confirmed that the US Bankruptcy Court in the Southern District of New York has given approval to its request to sell its operations to Chrysler Group LLC – the new company formed with Fiat SpA.

The alliance with Fiat will give the Chrysler Group access to products that will complement its existing portfolio and assist it with stronger global distribution. The companies are already working together on the next generation of green cars and Robert Nardelli, the chairman and chief executive of Chrysler Group LLC, believes there are huge benefits to the alliance.

“Through the hard work and foresight of many Chrysler stakeholders, Chrysler Group will soon begin operations with significant strategic advantages, such as a wage and benefit structure for active and retired employees that is competitive with those of transplant manufacturers; a reduction of debt and interest expense; the disposition of idle assets; a rationalised and more efficient dealer network; and sound agreements with our suppliers,” he said.

“While this has been an extremely difficult chapter in Chrysler’s history for all involved, the new company and its customers, employees and suppliers can now begin on a fresh page.”

It is hoped that these steps will position Chrysler Group to provide customers and dealers with both the high quality vehicles and service they expect.

Most green car enthusiasts would claim that it was General Motors’ and Chrysler’s lack of foresight in embracing green cars and alternative fuel technologies that led to their downfall. However, a very different point of view has been put forward at TheSunNews.com where a writer has actually blamed green technology for the companies’ problems.

Part of the blame he believes lies with the Bush administration’s mandate for Corporate Average Fuel Economy standards to take cars from 27.5mpg to 35mpg by 2020.

The author points out the shortcomings of downsizing vehicles stating that small cars depreciate faster and are of less value as trade-ins. It is also believed that for every 100lb reduction in car weight, the annual traffic fatalities increase by 2,000 a year.

He states that the auto CEOs were “in bed” with the green jobs movement and that between 1994 and 2003, General Motors gave Nature Conservancy more than $19million.

He points out that California tried fuel cell buses in 2005 and they cost $3million each compared to $328,000 each for diesel buses. On top of that Fed Ex has had to lay off drivers because of the expense associated with their eco trucks.

The author believes that Congress failed to consult the public about green jobs or the Smart Grid, not to mention the cap and trade that will “tax the air you breathe”.

To read the article in full, click here. And leave us a comment with your opinions on this viewpoint below.