Chrysler Group Unveils Treo of Plug-In Electric Vehicles

There’s certainly a lot of press being passed around for the Chevy Volt from General Motors, so the guys from Chrysler didn’t want to get lost in the mix. They’ve got not one, not two, but three separate electric vehicles for you to consider, all tackling different segments of the market.

Easily the most notable of three is the Dodge EV, an electric sports car based on the Lotus Europa S. Like a real sports car, it’s rear-wheel-drive and offers quite the peppy ride. The electric motor pumps out the equivalent of 268hp, which is impressive already, but get this: the Dodge EV generates 480 lbs-ft of torque. Holy crappers! Zero to 60 is under 5 seconds, quarter mile is 13 seconds, and top speed is over 120mph.

The Jeep EV and the Chrysler EV have their electric motors backed up by gasoline engines, extending the range to about 400 miles on 8 gallons of gas. The Jeep EV does the SUV thing and the Chrysler EV is modeled after the Town & Country minivan.

From what I hear, not all three are going to make it to market, because they’re more proof of concept than anything else. That said, Chrysler is promising that at least one of them will be available as a commercial release around the end of 2010. Isn’t that around the same time as the Volt?