Hybrid Minivans Just Around the Corner

Hybrid and diesel-powered minivans are just around the corner, starting with a Dodge Grand Caravan hybrid.  Chrysler could be the first minivan maker to bring a hybrid to market, but it won't be the last, says JD Power and Associates, Toyota also has plans to offer a hybrid Sierra by 2010.   And to meet demand for fuel-efficient vehicles, Volkswagen and Honda are likely to offer diesel versions of their minivans. VW starts assembling its Routan van in Windsor next month, on contract in Chrysler's van assembly plant.

Chrysler, which admitted Monday it has an advanced program to bring electrically powered vehicles to market within five years, does not comment on specific future product plans.

"All our vehicles are under consideration" for new propulsion technologies, said Nick Cappa, a spokesman for Chrysler's engineering technology operations.  That doesn't mean the company will put the two-mode hybrid system it has developed in partnership with General Motors, BMW and Daimler Benz into its minivans, Cappa said Monday. "You have to apply the right technology to the right product."

But some professional industry observers believe the decision has already been made.  Mike Omotoso, director of powertrain forecasting for JD Power in Detroit, said Monday he is advising clients to count on a handful of new powertrains to be available in showrooms by 2010.

Based on information gleaned from suppliers and other sources, JD Power reports that Chrysler intends to put its two-mode hybrid system in the Grand Caravan starting next year.   The same system is currently available in the Chevrolet Tahoe and GMC Yukon, neither of which is selling particularly well due to the high price tag, industry watchers say.

Chrysler will start offering the same system in its Aspen and Dodge Durango SUVs next month, at prices starting about $5,000 less than the GM vehicles.  Chrysler is bringing hybrids to market almost as much to improve its fuel numbers under U.S. law as it is for consumer demand reasons, Omotoso said Monday. "They need to improve their fleet fuel efficiency under CAFE," the U.S. Corporate Average Fuel Efficiency rule.

Chrysler is under more pressure to bring fuel efficient vehicles to market than either Ford or GM, Omotoso said, because its sales are more heavily skewed to trucks than its Detroit rivals.  Its small cars, the Caliber, Sebring and Avenger, haven't been as successful as the Chevy Cobalt or the Ford Focus, as North American drivers stampede out of larger vehicles and into smaller, more fuel-efficient rides.

But that shift in consumer demand will not make minivans a product of the past.  Omotoso said: "There will always be a demand for vehicles that seat five to seven people" and are capable of hauling a family load of baby gear.

JD Power is predicting that Chrysler will be able to sell up to 7.5 per cent of its 2010 minivan production run as hybrids, or between 12,000 and 13,000 units.  Toyota will sell more of its hybrid minivans when they reach market, Omotoso said, an estimated 20,000 units per year of its forecast production run of 160,000 units.

Both Honda and Volkswagen are likely to follow the hybrids to market with diesel-powered vans, he said. "There is some talk of Honda putting a diesel in the Odyssey in the next couple of years."  Honda has a range of diesel engines available in almost everything it sells in Europe.