Chrysler Airflow concept revealed, EVs hitting US market from 2025

The new Chrysler Airflow electric concept has been unveiled at this week's Consumer Electronics Show (CES), following the release of teaser images and details in December.

The reveal comes just months after the Chrysler brand exited the Australian market, following a complicated but often glorious history spanning 70 years and various incarnations.

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Even in the US, Chrysler's future is far from assured, although a pivot to electric vehicles will be its best bet on staying alive under the auspices of its parent Stellantis – which grew out of the merger between Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and PSA Groupe, best known for its Peugeot and Citroen brands.

The Airflow concept is offered as a preview of Chrysler's first electric vehicle, due to launch in 2025, and by 2028 the company will offer nothing but electric vehicles.

That shouldn't be too difficult a pivot, though: the big 300 sedan is due for retirement any moment now, and the Pacifica people mover – launched in 2017 – will doubtless be replaced in time for the still distant 2028 deadline.

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In concept form, the Airflow presents as a potential rival to the Ford Mustang Mach-E and the Tesla Model Y, offering all-wheel drive through a pair of 150kW electric motors.

Driving range is still to be confirmed, but Chrysler has suggested numbers in the neighbourhood of 450 to 550 kilometres will be on offer. Fairly standard, really.

Stellantis's STLA AutoDrive technology will be available, offering Level 3 autonomous driving capability. At that level, the driver is still expected to take over control at any moment, but the vehicle can otherwise pilot itself as needed – much to the level that Tesla's Full Self Driving system claims.

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Whether Chrysler will follow Tesla in rolling out that capability without first navigating a proper government approval process, remains to be seen.

Regardless, we shouldn't expect to see the Airflow offered in Australia, but it is likely a preview of the technology we'll see from what is still a relatively healthy local stable of Stellantis brands – Fiat, Jeep, Maserati, RAM, Alfa Romeo, Peugeot, Citroen – in the years ahead.

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The story to here

December 23, 2021: American manufacturer Chrysler will be using next year's Consumer Electrics Show (CES) to show off its new Airflow concept to the public for the first time.

Having been teased earlier this year during parent company Stellantis's EV Day, the four-door crossover will be underpinned by the STLA Medium platform – the architecture upon which a majority of the conglomerate's mid-size cars will be based.

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While it's not yet a production vehicle, the Airflow could be an important model for Chrysler as the manufacturer looks to make it through its stay of execution – Stellantis having announced earlier this year that its struggling marques have until 2031 to get their respective acts together to avoid the chopping block.

At present, Chrysler builds just two models for the North American market – the Pacifica minivan and the 300 sedan – with the people-mover featuring an electrified variant, the first of all of Stellantis's American brands to go hybrid before Ram introduced a mild-hybrid 1500.

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Chrysler might be pulling out of Australia at the end of the year, but that won't stop its Stellantis siblings from rolling on with their electrification plans, as Jeep is due to show off its Wrangler and Grand Cherokee 4xe plug-in hybrids at the CES 2022 in Las Vegas – the first electrified models from the iconic brand.

A number of other vehicles will also occupy the Stellantis stand, including the electric Fiat 500, Citroen's Ami, the Citroen Skate Mobility Concept and the DS E-Tense FE21 – the latest evolution of the DS sub-brand's championship-winning Formula E racer.