Dodge Circuit EV
Chrysler promises to bring one of its 2009 ENVI concept cars from the Detroit show to production by 2010. We hope it’s this one. Zero emissions with performance and styling—what’s not to like? We had the opportunity to briefly drive the development car in our December issue. It wore a different yellow body then and was known simply as the Dodge EV.
Those in the know will recognize this as an electric conversion of a Lotus Europa, a car we don’t get in the US. It’s a 2-seat, mid-engine, rear-drive sports car and is built on a light weight aluminium chassis like that of the Lotus Elise. Dodge’s Circuit EV concept replaces the gasoline engine with a 268-hp DC electric motor and a lithium-ion battery pack. It promises 150-200 miles of driving and 0-60 times below 5 seconds.
With bodywork that features Dodge’s signature crosshair grille lending some credibility to the idea that this is the first Chrysler EV to reach production (by 2010), we can only keep our fingers crossed.
