Dodge Durango will be Chrysler's first hybrid

CanWest News Service | Published: Friday, March 02, 2007

Some other tidbits from Tom LaSorda's address to the media and analysts last week:

- "We are evaluating a mild hybrid for future applications," he said. He did not elaborate. The 2008 Dodge Durango SUV will be the first hybrid Chrysler product; it uses the two-mode hybrid system designed for highway driving as well as city driving.

- Chrysler is also rebalancing its product mix to offer more small vehicles and fewer large vehicles.

- The company is in the process of melding its four families of V-6 engines into one, the Phoenix engine. Chrysler will draw on the "lessons learned" from building its new family of four-cylinder engines in Dundee, Mich.

The main lesson from Dundee: one employee job category for the entire plant, which works six days per week with no overtime and only a fraction of the staff used in Ford's Windsor, Ont., plants.

- Chrysler has set a target of obtaining $5 billion US worth of low-cost parts, most of it likely from overseas sources. "But it will mean also working with existing suppliers in our own backyard."

- The Chrysler Group is now marketing an imported, Hyundai-built microcar in Mexico. It's called the Dodge Atos.

The Korean subcompact won't be coming to the rest of North America: that slot is being reserved for the new Chery-built car from China, LaSorda said.