After canceling the upcoming Airflow electrical crossover and killing its standard 300 sedan, Chrysler solely has one nameplate left in its lineup – nevertheless it doesn’t should be this manner. Stellantis already builds a full-size electrical sedan that would show to be a badge-engineered winner.
And, sure – it actually ought to have been the brand new Chrysler 300. Meet the DS No. 8.
Stellantis’ US manufacturers have had a tricky go of the previous few years, with Jeep making an attempt and failing to bait luxurious consumers prepared to half with six-figure sums for a brand new Grand Wagoneer or generate pleasure for the brand new electrical Wagoneer S. The Dodge model is doing to raised with the Charger, a complicated electrical muscle automobile that has, to this point, didn’t attraction to fanatics of any variety. In the meantime, the lone Chrysler left standing, the Pacifica minivan, made its debut again in 2016. Practically ten lengthy mannequin years in the past.
All of the whereas, Stellantis’ European manufacturers have been forging forward with desireable EVs – most just lately launching the brand new DS No. 8 high-riding sedan, proven right here, again in December … and I’m right here to let you know that it actually SHOULD have been the brand new Chrysler 300.
This, however with wealthy Corinthian leather-based
With a special grille, a Chrysler badge on the steering wheel, and some completely different plastichrome numbers on the again, the DS Vehicles No. 8 may simply be a new-age Chrysler 300. Heck, even the inside’s avant-garde styling and architecturally-inspired stitching may tie-in to the Artwork Deco-style Chrysler Constructing in New Yorkadditional strengthening the large No. 8’s Chrysler-brand credibility.
Spec-wise, the DS meets the invoice, as nicely. With a 92.7 kWh battery and the usual 230 hp electrical motors on board, the electrical crossover is nice for 750 km (466 miles) of vary on the WLTP cycle. With the identical battery and a 350 hp dual-motor setup that sacrifices about 40 miles of vary for a extra sure-footed AWD format and a 5.4 second 0-60 time that compares properly to the outgoing Chrysler 300 V8.
The DS provides fairly fast 150 kW charging, too, enabling a 10-80% cost (over 300 miles of further driving vary) in lower than thirty minutes.
Why it will work
Consider all the explanations the Wagoneer S and Charger Daytona EVs have failed to achieve an viewers. From the complicated Wagoneer “sub-branding” to the truth that nobody was actually asking for both an eco-conscious muscle automobile or a loud EV. On the flip aspect of that, the 300 is one thing completely different.
Since its first iteration seventy years in the past, the Chrysler 300 (referred to as the “C-300” again in 1955) has been a forward-looking car. Even the latest variations, developed off the Mercedes-Benz W210 platform Chrysler inherited whereas it was a part of the “merger of equals” with Mercedes-Benzseemed ahead from the malaise-ere Ok-car model to a vibrant, Mercedes-infused future.
With the DS No. 8, Chrysler may do it once more. It may revive its basic American nameplate on a European-designed platform that wasn’t designed to be a Chrysler, doesn’t seem like a Chrysler, and shouldn’t work as a Chrysler, however someway does. The truth that it may be the model’s first profitable electrical providing within the US would simply be a bonus.
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