Chrysler on Tuesday debuted the beautiful Halcyon Idea EV in an try to redefine the model because it pivots to electrical automobiles. 

Not like the Chrysler Airflow Idea that debuted in 2022 as a near-production-ready electrical crossover launching in 2025, the Halcyon Idea four-door coupe gained’t ever make manufacturing. So what’s it, and the way does it assist a model that makes extra idea vehicles than fashions it sells?  

“Halcyon represents a time period of happiness, pleasure, and serenity,” Chrysler model CEO Chris Feuell instructed members of a press briefing on the finish of January.  

Merriam-Webster is much less sanguine. It defines halcyon as “most frequently used to explain a contented and profitable time previously that’s remembered as being higher than at this time.”

Chrysler Halcyon Idea

Regardless of the case, Chrysler is at a crossroads in contrast to at every other time in its close to 100-year historical past. Brief on efficiency specs however lengthy on guarantees, the Halcyon Idea reorients the model to evolve from the discontinued 300C sedan and the lone Chrysler Pacifica  by shedding mild on every little thing starting from a battery electrical minivan to lithium-sulfur battery packs that allegedly present as much as 200 miles of vary in 5 minutes of fast-charging. 

Chrysler stated the idea incorporates Lyten 800-volt lithium-sulfur batteries that don’t use cobalt, nickel, or manganese for cathodes, leading to a 60% decrease carbon footprint than different “best-in-class” lithium ion (NMC) batteries at the moment in the marketplace. Lengthy touted for his or her density however virtually unproven for his or her life cycle, lithium-sulfur cells akin to these made by California-based Lyten stay in a pilot section. 

One other growth touted by Chrysler is road-embedded dynamic wi-fi charging, such because the one father or mother model Stellantis has been testing in Italy. Feuell admitted that it takes time, however Chrysler is prioritizing efforts in “sure cities and geographic areas” to deploy it in partnerships with tech corporations and governments. 

“This can be a idea car and it’s incorporating applied sciences which are on the horizon in our lengthy vary plans,” Feuell stated.

STLA Massive platform

Within the close to time period, the Halcyon Idea rides on some concrete Chrysler details. It makes use of the STLA Massive platform that may underpin eight international fashions being launched within the subsequent two years. With a size to not exceed 201.Eight inches, the forthcoming electrical crossovers will likely be a pair inches shorter than the present Chrysler Pacifica and Jeep Grand Cherokee L three-row automobiles. 

There will likely be 400- and 800-volt variations in STLA Massive, however the Halcyon’s propulsion system, and people of the forthcoming automobiles, are restricted to conjecture. 

For now, Stellantis will pursue a multi-energy technique consisting of combustion engines, plug-in hybrids, and battery electrics till its all-electric 2038 goal.

“In the interim we’ll have a multi-energy technique for Chrysler due to the Pacifica PHEV,” Feuell instructed Inexperienced Automobile Reviews. “In future product there’s not an ICE deliberate. It’s necessary for Chrysler to have that time of distinction with STLA Massive if conditions change and demand modifications.”

Chrysler Halcyon Idea

Gross sales of the Pacifica plug-in hybrid have been strong, up 60% in 2023 and accounting for 20% of Pacifica gross sales. Chrysler targets the plug-in for 34% Pacifica share for 2024. 

A Chrysler Pacifica refresh will comply with the 2025 electrical crossover in Chrysler’s cadence, and one other electrical car will comply with that. An electrical minivan appears seemingly, however it’s a matter of when. 

“I did say that we’re remodeling our portfolio to be full battery electrical so it actually suggests we’re popping out with a BEV minivan,” Feuell stated.

Hints will be discovered within the Halcyon, and never simply within the new Chrysler badge made from crushed CDs that may grace the refreshed Pacifica. Counting on a sketch as an alternative of a demo, the rear seat bottoms of the two+2 Halcyon slide into the hatch so the seat bottoms are flush with the seat backs, opening up the ground area. It’s an fascinating different than the peerless Stow ‘n Go seats that fold into the ground of the Pacifica. The battery pack within the ground of an electrical car would forestall that with out some weird packaging twist.

Chrysler Halcyon Idea

The Halcyon borrows from final 12 months’s Chrysler idea within the Synthesis cockpit that built-in the STLA Mind {hardware} and software program for the infotainment system, semi-autonomous drive system, and AI studying for driver preferences. The STLA Mind was manifest on a 15.6-inch retractable touchscreen on the Halcyon, and of the entire idea’s elements, it was “fairly market prepared,” Chrysler stated. It’ll launch first within the 2025 electrical crossover, adopted by different car North American launches.  

Different elements of the Halcyon are extra theoretical, together with ingress. The lengthy and low sedan sits 4.zero inches off the bottom and options single-hinged barn doorways that swing open. However to get within the automotive, a 3rd door, or butterfly window hinged on the roof, have to be flipped as much as duck your head in. At 5-foot-8, I’d have needed to recline or chop my head off to shut the butterfly and the doorways to go. 

The glass dome that gives close to 360-degree sights accounts for 45% of the car’s inside, and it defines its exterior as properly. The entrance windshield stretches its tongue to this point ahead it ends previous the entrance axle, and close to the bisected entrance lip of the Halcyon. The lips half to type an air tunnel, or air blade, that lets the air movement across the glass bubble. It’s comparable in design to the entrance wing on the Dodge Charger Daytona SRT Banshee Idea.

Wherever Chrysler is at, the Halcyon proves that the model is altering and can proceed to evolve past the 2025 electrical crossover.

Chrysler Halcyon Idea

“The Airflow Idea was developed earlier than we reframed the model positioning,” Feuell defined. “It was a great begin, however we knew we might push issues a bit of edgier, a bit of extra tech ahead, and I believe what we you see right here with the Halcyon Idea represents the longer term design path of the model.”

Proving Chrysler is greater than only a minivan, the idea subverts the Halcyon days of Chrysler into one thing forward, not behind.