One of the biggest surprises in the 2010 - 2014 plan from Chrysler last week was the abandoning of its much-vaunted ENVI programme, that was looking to bring mass-produced electric propulsion vehicles into the showrooms by 2013. Instead the ambitious programme has been scrapped and the dedicated division, called "ENVI" (taken from the word "environment") dissolved and absorbed into the wider R&D structure. Meanwhile the Fiat Doblò has become the latest vehicle from the Italian manufacturer's stable to be linked with a new life stateside.

ENVI was set up by Chrysler's previous owners, private equity house Cerberus Capital Management just over two years ago in an effort to bring alternative powered vehicles into the product mix and plug a gaping gap in the carmaker's range which doesn't include a single hybrid vehicle. At the North American International Auto Show in Detroit last January Chrysler rolled out the first fruits of the ENVI programme which ranged from a small two-seat sports car called the Dodge Circuit, that was hurriedly based on the Lotus Elise, right up to large Jeep offerings and management sounded out ambitious plans to be producing 500,000 units by 2013.

In late May Chrysler submitted a US$448-million plan to the Department of Energy's Electric Drive Vehicle Battery and Component Manufacturing Initiative and Transportation Electrification Initiative that have been established in order to rapidly bring electric vehicles and plug-in hybrid-electric vehicles to the showrooms. The two initiatives aim to speed up development, demonstration, evaluation and manufacturing with all the "Big Three" circling the scheme as well as smaller entrants such as Fisker. The Chrysler project represented a 50/50 cost-share with US$224 million coming from Chrysler and its partners, including A123, combined with a matching US$224 million from the DOE. The plan foresaw 365 test vehicles hitting the road (including an announced 100 units of the Dodge Ram 1500 together with a similar number of the Chrysler Town & Country minivan) and a brand-new US$83 million vehicle electrification technology and manufacturing centre to be built in Michigan. This new facility would house development, testing and electric-drive component manufacturing in addition to final assembly of electric vehicles. As late as the end of August Chrysler received US$70 million towards this ambitious programme.

On Friday Chrysler spokesman Nick Cappa told Reuters that the ENVI division of engineers dedicated to pursuing electric vehicle mass-production had now been scrapped and would be incorporated into the wider Chrysler organisation. "ENVI is absorbed into the normal vehicle development program," he told the news agency. Under the new 2010 - 2014 business plan presented by Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne, Cappa went on to inform Reuters, the executive leading the ENVI division, Lou Rhodes, will now take on an as-yet somewhat undefined role as the group line executive in charge of electric car development for both Fiat and Chrysler.

During the high-profile unveiling of the five-year plan last week Marchionne said that he envisioned "one or two percent" of Chrysler Group vehicles being electric-powered by the end of 2014. Under his volume projections that would be less that 60,000 vehicles. "Until the [battery] storage gets resolved, I think electric vehicles are going to struggle," he told the assembled analysts and journalists.

In Paolo Ferrero's presentation on drivetrains last Wednesday electric vehicles were virtually ignored with only the vaguest comments being made. The plan said that the "Chrysler Group to be centre of competence for hybrids and electrification for Fiat Group / Chrysler Group worldwide". It added in the "short term: electrification/hybrids to complement advances in conventional technologies" while in the "long term" Fiat admitted that it couldn't cost-effectively introduce the technology and preferred instead to stick to its policy of downsizing and improving the efficiency of petrol and diesel engines, the presentation notes adding: "electrification/hybrids will expand once they become a cost effective proposition to final customer."