Lots of stuff happening at Chrysler (finally).  The company that went into bankruptcy, for which the taxpayer footed the bill, and then emerged with a clean slate so that a foreign company, Fiat, could buy it up has since been floundering around looking for an identity other than “bailout welfare queen with the Italian boyfriend.”  They probably thought they had it when the Department of Energy gave them (another) $48 million in taxpayer money as a bribe to build the Ram Hybrid truck.

Well, not so.  The Ram Hybrid will only see the 140 units that were agreed to with the DOE and then will most likely disappear.  Not because Chrysler doesn’t want to build a hybrid, but because their hybrid technology is crap.

The new identity for the company, apparently, will be thanks to their new pimp owner, Fiat, who plans to send the plans to build the Fiat 500 EV (likely as a hybrid-electric) to Mexico so that Chrysler’s plant down there on Toluca can build them for the U.S. market.  To throw the dog a bone, though, the “development and engineering” will take place in Michigan.  So the new car brings, like, three new green jobs to America.  Yay Obama!  The bailout worked!

Meanwhile, former Chrysler Group CEO Tom LaSorda, not to be confused with the Dodger’s manager, will be taking a seat on the Board at Electrovaya.  That company makes batteries for, you guessed it, Chrysler’s big bad (dead) Ram Hybrid program.  The decision to bring on the ex-CEO probably centered on hopes that LaSorda could help convince Chrysler to make the partnership a little more enduring.  LaSorda is also being given the title “strategic advisor” to Electrovaya’s CEO, whose name is unpronounceable.  I think by “strategy adviser” they mean “he knows people at the top of Chrysler and can get us in, baby!”

So it looks like Chrysler is planning to keep kicking and struggling as the choking death throes finish them off.  Maybe they’ll re-emerge as a new brand of Fiat.  Probably not, that would be too honest.

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