Chrysler Doing the Electric Slide for Wall Street
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I trust you'll understand why I was perturbed to see CNBC's Phil Lebeau get the "exclusive" on Chrysler's electric car program, ENVI, Tuesday morning. Embargos were tighter than Lehman Brothers' credit line before the 10 a.m. (Eastern) reveal of the electric Lotus-Dodge sports car and extended-range electric Jeep Wrangler Unlimited and Chrysler Town & Country, only to see the financial news cable station get a jump on those of us in the lowly motoring press first thing that morning. Detroit bows to Wall Street's confidence men once again. By the time I found the story on cnbc.com while attending a Motor Trend program on the West Coast, Chrysler's message was lost on the actual cable channel, which was instead covering ... ah you know, Henry Paulson, Ben Bernanke, the Senate Banking Committee and the near-collapse of pretty much our entire U.S. economy.
Hah. Serves Bob Nardelli right.
Chrysler Chairman Nardelli told Lebeau (good on him for the scoop, by the way) that plans for one of those electrics/extended-range electrics to make Main Street by 2010 should prove that Mopar does, indeed, have new product coming and that it's relevant, 21st-century product at that. Not just retro Paleolithic Dodge Challengers. This is the message that mainstream media are culling from Chrysler's announcement -- that Detroit's number-three will live past the death of the internal-combustion engine.
"I didn't think they were a player," Jim Hossack of AutoPacific told the Los Angeles Times. "I'm impressed. This suggests a lot of bravado." It also suggests, though I haven't heard anyone else suggest it yet, that proof of relevant future product will help Cerberus, the three-headed private equity firm from hell, get its much-needed infusion of private equity to bolster Chrysler. And indeed, news of the electric-car program was followed with news that Daimler is ready to sell its remaining 19.9% of Chrysler to Cerberus. Meanwhile, Chrysler is trying to return to its roots as the engineer's car company, the innovator. Think of the Lotus-Dodge Tesla-fighter as makeup for Chrysler's backing down and turning what was supposed to be its production turbine car into the conventional '66 Dodge Charger.
And it suggests that Chrysler wants the investment world (which consists mostly of China and India these days) to know that it will be a viable car company in 2011, '12, and beyond. A worthy investment for someone from the economic power formerly known as the Third World. Someone, call Phil Lebeau and tell him I've got an investment tip.
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