Chrysler Undercutting GM On Hybrid SUV Prices

DETROIT — The market for hybrid full-size sport utility vehicles may be small, but Chrysler LLC is determined to get a piece of it, saying Tuesday that its new hybrids will be nearly $8,000 less than competitors from General Motors Corp.

Chrysler said its 2009 Dodge Durango hybrid will have a suggested retail price of $45,340 while its 2009 Chrysler Aspen hybrid will start at $45,570. A comparable four-wheel-drive version of the 2008 Chevrolet Tahoe hybrid starts at $53,295, while the 2008 GMC Yukon hybrid starts at $52,855.

Chrysler spokesman Nick Cappa said the hybrid Aspen will cost $3,550 more than a comparable model with a gas engine, while the Durango will cost $3,655 more. Hybrid buyers will be able to reduce that premium with a hybrid tax credit of $1,800, he said.

The Durango and Aspen are Chrysler's first entries into the hybrid market and will go on sale in August. Chrysler said the hybrid SUVs get up to 20 miles per gallon and improve fuel economy by 40 percent in city driving and up to 25 percent overall.

Chrysler's hybrid system was developed in a partnership with GM, Daimler AG's Mercedes-Benz and BMW AG, and it's the same system that's in the GM SUVs. The system _ called a two-mode hybrid _ can operate in electric-only mode at low speeds or with a combination of the gas engine and electric assistance for more power at higher speeds. The electric motors are lighter than those in the single-mode systems used by Toyota Motor Corp. and Ford Motor Co., making them more ideal for towing.

Sales of full-size vehicles have tumbled this year, the victim of high gas prices and growing consumer preference for smaller cars. But it's unclear if hybrid SUVs will lure some buyers back to the segment.

GM said earlier this month it sold 1,100 Chevrolet Tahoe and GMC Yukon hybrids in the first five months of this year, or about 2 percent of its total Tahoe and Yukon sales.

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On the Net:

Chrysler LLC: http://www.chrylser.com

Comments

[KillTheMessenger]

Selling a hybrid SUV is about as sensible as talking a heroin addict into using methamphetamines.

[EinChicago]

Or buying a small foreign hybrid assembled almost entirely from plastic parts made thousands of miles apart and then shipped halfway around the world using thousands of gallons of oil for each one.

[choada777]

OR buying a non-foreign, non-hybrid car, made with the similar plastic parts made from raw materials that are from the same sources, thousands of miles apart, and gets the exact same inefficient gas mileage as your last car.

[KillTheMessenger]

We had that discussion already. I pointed out that the total cost of importing a car from Japan is on the order of $1500 or less. For that you buy the cargo space on the ship, pay the crew, the fuel and rent a shipping container weighing 2.2 tons itself. A car transporter which avoids the weight and volume penalty of a cargo container can do this for probably less than $1000. $1000 last year bought you some ten to twelve barrels of oil. So we can safely say that the shipping operation used less than that. Shall we make that 8 barrels of oil to get my car from Japan to here? A barrel is 42 gallons of hydrocarbons. So my Prius used a mere 350 gallons of fuel to make it here. That's about as much as I am saving in fuel every year in comparison to my previous car. One year out of a lifetime of ten or more... not a huge price to pay.

But I agree... it would be better if they would build the car in the US. And they will. GM and Ford keep laying off workers. Toyota might just pick them up...

[willo]

Chrysler said the hybrid SUVs get up to 20 miles per gallon and improve fuel economy by 40 percent in city driving and up to 25 percent overall

Still a gas hog that doesn't make any sense, anyway you slice it.
Chrysler: make a small min-van that averages 35 mpg. Also you should have at least one vehicle that get's 50 mpg.
Chrysler's plan is to have Nissan build all their small cars, and to take over production of Nissan's biggest truck gas hogs. Management like Chrysler has is designed to destroy the company. It's all part of the elites plan to destroy the American economy and war on the middle class,[what's left of it}.

[pbfishtaco]

Hybrids are selling @2% of a declining market. I doubt that will pay for the extra development costs.

Large SUV buyers won't pay ANY premium just to get a few more MPG. Either they really do need the extra carrying capacity, or use it as a tow vehicle, or just don't care how bad the mileage is.

New vehicle buyers are avoiding large SUV's altogether, so is the addition of hybrid technology just a feel-good move by the automakers, or will it really help them in the long run?

[Teadye]

Good luck getting a hybrid. There is a long waiting list and a $5k extra fee on top of the sticker price for the privilege of buying one. We went out to look for a new car last weekend and that's what we found. We came home with a small gas car that gets better mpg than any hybrid we could have had in a reasonable amt of time (and the hybrids were about $20k more.) Even SmartCar has a waiting list of about a year.

[KillTheMessenger]

Economically there is nothing wrong with driving a smaller car that is not a hybrid. A Yaris or similar sub-compact actually present better dollar value at the current gas prices than a full hybrid like a Prius. And at this point it might make sense to wait for the next generation of full hybrids, anyway and upgrade when true 55-60mpg technology has matured, which will probably be around 2011/2012. The resale value of a small sub-compact with good mpg should still be very good at that time.