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Dodge

In an attempt to maintain its stranglehold of police fleets across the country, Ford Motor Company has announced that it will introduce an all-new Police Interceptor early next year. Ford has already confirmed that the current Crown Victoria (pictured left) and its 30-year-old Panther platform will cease production in late 2011, and it said that the replacement for the Crown Victoria will be offered without interruption of the current model. With the Crown Victoria’s production assured through the end of 2011, the new car probably won’t go into production until late 2011 or early 2012 for the 2012 model year.

To create the best possible replacement for the iconic cop car, Ford has created an in-house Police Advisory Board to design a vehicle that maximizes vehicle safety, durability, versatility and efficiency to continue the car’s market dominance. Like its commercial vehicles such as the Ford E-Series vans and Ford F-Series pickup trucks, the Crown Victoria is a market leader when it comes to the law enforcement segment as it commands 75 percent of the market annually with 45,000 units sold each year. It is clear that Ford does not intend to cede this market to Dodge or Chevrolet, but what isn’t clear as of yet is which vehicle will be used for the police car and whether or not it will be available to the public.

Going up against the Dodge Charger (pictured right) and the upcoming Chevrolet Caprice (as well as the Carbon Motors E7 if it is ever put production) , the 2012 Ford Police Interceptor will almost certainly utilize a rear-wheel drive layout. Some have guessed that Ford would use its rear-wheel, Australian-based Falcon while others think that the 2010 Ford Taurus will be the basis for the new Police Interceptor, but it is also possible that Ford could offer a completely different model altogether. Adding more mystery to what vehicle it will use, Ford said that the new car will be a purpose-built model that is made in North America.

“We have heard the repeated requests from the law enforcement community to continue uninterrupted support of the law enforcement community,” said Mark Fields, Ford’s president of The Americas. “Ford is answering the call with the new Police Interceptor – engineered and built in America.”

The current Ford Crown Victoria is no longer available to the public and soldiers on in police fleets rolling of the assembly Ontario, Canada. It is unknown whether this plant will build the 2012 Ford Police Interceptor, but Ford will unveil the new police car and its full detailed specifications early next year to give police departments and equipment upfitters adequate time to transition to the new car.

Select photos via Ford and Chrysler

Just last week, the Chrysler Group held a day-long press conference detailing the future additions to each of the four brands, but today the struggling automaker announced a surprising cut from its vehicle development. Chrysler has announced that its ENVI team, which produced a trio of electric vehicle (EV) prototypes in seemingly record time, has been disbanded due to Chrysler and Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne’s belief that the EV market will struggle until more advanced battery systems are developed.

ENVI, its naming derived from ENVIronment, was put together by Chrysler’s former owner Cerberus Capital Management back in 2007 to quickly design EV prototypes. The resulting vehicles were electric versions of the Chrysler Town & Country, Jeep Patriot and Jeep Wrangler as well as the Chrysler 200C and Dodge Circuit EV (pictured left) prototypes. Chrysler’s ENVI team showed off the EVs earlier this year as part of its case to help secure a total of $12.5 billion of federal emergency loans to stay alive. Following the bankruptcy proceedings, Chrysler received an additional $70 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy in August so it could build and test a fleet of 220 hybrid minivans and pickup trucks. Replacing ENVI, Chrysler spokesperson Nick Cappa said that the projects being developed under ENVI would now fall under the responsibility normal product development.

Back in January, Chrysler pledged that it would have 500,000 EVs on the road by 2013, but now Marchionne says he only expects Chrysler to have around 60,000 EVs on the road by 2014.

"Until the (battery) storage gets resolved, I think electric vehicles are going to struggle," he said.

The price and limitations of battery technology is sure to slow initial EV sales, but Chrysler’s disbandment of ENVI will likely put it even further behind the curve compared to the EV development of its competitors like General Motors and Nissan. This news probably shouldn’t have come as too big of a shock since there have been no updates to the program or any of the vehicles since this past January. As GM continues to publicly test the Chevrolet Volt and Nissan seems to be well on its way to offering the Nissan LEAF late next year, Chrysler has made no attempt to flaunt the progression of its EV program since the vehicles made their debut at the 2009 North American International Auto Show in Detroit.

The former head of Chrysler’s ENVI program, Lou Rhodes, will now be in charge of electric vehicle development of both Chrysler and Fiat. In recent years, Fiat has already produced roadworthy EVs such as the Fiat Fiorino (pictured near right) and the Fiat Palio Weekend (a compact station wagon). Fiat and Chrysler are already planning product sharing in the future, so the merger of EV development could be an attempt to minimize costs and maximize knowledge. While this announcement doesn’t rule out the possibility of Chrysler-built EVs in the future, it pretty much spells the end for the sleek and sporty Dodge Circuit EV which was a Dodge-branded, all-electric version of the Lotus Europa.

The cancellation of the ENVI program could delay EVs for Chrysler, but is still likely to have a hybrid-electric vehicle on the road in coming years. Currently, Chrysler is one few major automakers that does not offer a hybrid-electric vehicle following the cancellation of the Dodge Durango and Chrysler Aspen Two-Mode Hybrid. A Dodge Ram 1500 HEV still looks to be on track using the same system as the Durango and Aspen, but that isn’t expected to be introduced until late 2010 or 2011.