Chrysler still seeks funds for low-fuel cars

The Chrysler Group will continue pursuing loans from the US Energy Department while the failure of companies that have borrowed from government programmes may prolong the process, the chief executive officer said. "I'm not ready to give up," Sergio Marchionne, CEO of Chrysler, told reporters yesterday at the National Automobile Dealers Association convention in Las Vegas. "The department has not indicated an unwillingness to lend." Chrysler, majority owned by Fiat, continues to hold talks with the US about the programme, which encourages production of fuel-efficient vehicles, Marchionne said. He reiterated that the amount that Auburn, Hills, Michigan-based Chrysler may be able to borrow has been reduced to less than the $3.5 billion (Dh12.85 billion) the company sought last year. Article continues below Gas-powered vehicles Ener1 Inc, the maker of batteries for electric cars that received a $118 million Energy Department grant to make electric-car batteries, last month filed for bankruptcy protection after defaulting on bond debt amid Asian competition. Ener1's bankruptcy follows the failure of at least two US government-backed renewable energy companies, solar panel maker Solyndra and energy storage company Beacon Power Corp. Marchionne plans to introduce compressed natural gas- powered vehicles in the US to meet 2025 standards calling for the average fuel economy to rise to 54.5 miles per gallon. He said at the Detroit auto show last month that Chrysler plans to begin sales of natural-gas powered pickups to fleet customers as soon as this year. "I can make them faster than you can think," Marchionne said yesterday. "We're going to start showing the product, and then we'll see whether people will take them." The dealers' association, based in McLean, Virginia, has said it expects attendance of more than 20,000 at its convention this year. Marchionne said in a keynote speech that Chrysler dealers are the "most profitable they have been in a decade," without elaborating. Chrysler's dealer body is about 85 per cent profitable now compared with 70 per cent in 2009, Ralph Kisiel, a company spokesman, said in an e-mail.