Chrysler may be lagging behind the rest of the automotive world in hybrid vehicle technology, but the Michigan-based automaker might have a trick up its sleeve to help catapult it to the forefront of plug-in hybrid technology. Chrysler has teamed with General Electric for a new project that will demonstrate GE’s dual-battery energy storage system.
GE’s hybrid technologies have been used in railroad applications – which the company calls a “6,000-horsepower Prius on rails” – and GE will also use its system for a heavy-duty, off-highway hybrid truck. But beyond commercial applications, GE also wants to expand its technology to include the automotive sector.
“A lot of these technologies are really synergistic to what the automotives need, and we can work together with the automotives in partnership to see how we can advance these technologies further,” Vlatko Vlatkovic, a GE official, told Automotive News.
The partnership with Chrysler seems natural as Chrysler CEO was once an executive at GE.
No word on when Chrysler plans to have a plug-in hybrid to market but, with Toyota and General Motors releasing such vehicles in 2010, Chrysler will no doubt be looking for a launch date soon after the turn of the decade.
