Chrysler promises contemporary, edgy design for first fully electric vehicle
Christine Feuell says the first fully electric Chrysler will feature a much edgier and more contemporary design than the Airflow Concept the brand unveiled last year at CES.
“We found a design theme that was even more aspirational, as I said, edgier, than what we’d been showing in the Airflow,” Feuell, the CEO of the Stellantis brand, told the Detroit Free Press, part of the Paste BN Network, recently. “We took that concept to research in March of this year with customers just prior to the Dealer Business Meeting that we had in Las Vegas, and we hit it out of the park.”
The Airflow name, however, won’t be attached to a vehicle that Feuell said will be a “larger crossover utility” coming in 2025.
The Airflow Concept captured headlines and a fair amount of excitement as the planned new direction for the storied brand with comparisons to the Tesla Model Y and Ford Mustang Mach-E when it was shown at the massive consumer electronics event in Las Vegas in January 2022, but Feuell said a concept is just a concept.
“It was never intended to be the product that we launch, but a concept to inspire the direction that the brand was going in for all of our future products during this new product cycle,” Feuell said.
When asked previously by the Free Press whether the Airflow — a name shared with a legendary Chrysler model of the 1930s — would be the brand’s first EV, Feuell stopped short of that commitment, saying instead that design cues and technologies in the concept would be part of the new vehicle.
Company statements that the Airflow was “more than a pure concept,” however, helped sell the idea that the Airflow or a version of it would be that vehicle.
So it’s not surprising that recent reports highlighted the scrapping of the name for the first Chrysler battery electric vehicle.
Feuell told the Free Press that the Airflow Concept “demonstrates the art of the possible for the future Chrysler portfolio,” which is expected to be fully electric by 2028.
She said no name has been selected yet for the first Chrysler electric vehicle, but it will be something new. There is a short list, however.
“We want to honor what Chrysler has stood for for the last 100 years in terms of being an innovation leader,” Feuell said, noting that the brand is also positioning itself around a theme of “harmony in motion” to reflect how it sees its vehicle technology integrating with the lives of its customers.
Heritage names are being considered for future vehicles, she said.
Pricing for the new vehicle “will play in the sweet spot of the mainstream segment” and not so “far up market that our typical mainstream buyers can’t afford it,” Feuell said.
The new vehicle will utilize the company’s STLA Large platform, one of four planned for its EVs. STLA Large vehicles are to provide up to 500 miles per charge, according to what the company has said previously.
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The new direction for Chrysler is the result of the 2021 merger that created Stellantis and led to a commitment from Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares that the company’s brands would get resources and the opportunity to remake themselves for the future.
That was good news for the Chrysler brand, which had faced speculation about its viability in part because of a reduced portfolio limited to the 300 sedan and variants of the Pacifica minivan.
The Pacifica name, incidentally, might not vanish.
“We’re definitely taking a look at a BEV variant for the Pacifica in the future at some point in time,” Feuell said. The minivan currently comes in gas-powered and plug-in hybrid electric versions.
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Chrysler is currently sold through about 2,400 dealers; it’s available in the United States and Canada as well as parts of the Middle East, although the brand stopped selling in Mexico earlier this year, Feuell said, noting that Mexico is a “very price-sensitive” market and the brand did not have the right products for it.
Contact Eric D. Lawrence: elawrence@freepress.com.