At last year’s LA and Detroit auto show, back when it was owned by Cerberus Capital Management, Chrysler’s concept cars were all electric, including a battery-powered Town & Country minivan, 200C sedan, Dodge sports car, and Jeep Patriot. The message was clear: electric cars would were to play a key role in the company’s future.
 
Now that the company has been bought by Fiat, it has announced new product plans that  focus on improving its conventional cars. (See "Chrysler’s business plan: The Fiat platforms.") Consumer Reports was not able to recommend a single Chrysler model from 2007 or 2008. For 2009, we were finally able to recommend the redesigned Dodge Ram pickup. (See “Detroit report cards.”)
 
Now Chrysler has emphasized its fresh product plans by disbanding its electric vehicle division, ENVI (short for environmental), announced last year. Chrysler says its electric car development will now be rolled into its standard product development, according to Reuters.

In Chrysler’s future product plan presentation earlier this month, company Chairman Sergio Marchionne said electric cars are expected to account for less than two percent of Chrysler’s sales by 2014, far less than the 300,000 envisioned under ENVI.
 
—Eric Evarts