Chrysler, all but left for dead by most industry watchers, surprised just about everyone in Detroit this morning by announcing it has not one but three electric vehicles in the pipeline and we’ll see the first of them in showrooms by 2010.

The stunning announcement instantly propelled the smallest of the Big Three automakers to the front of the pack in the race to bring an EV to market and places it in direct competition with the Chevrolet Volt that General Motors unveiled last week.

The line-up of EVs it unveiled includes a range-extended electric versions of the Chrysler Town & Country minivan and Jeep Wrangler SUV and an all-electric Dodge sports car.

“We have a social responsibility to our consumers to deliver environmentally friendly, fuel-efficient, advanced electric vehicles, and our intention is to meet that responsibility quickly and more broadly than any other automobile manufacturer,” says Bob Nardelli, chairman and CEO of the struggling automaker.

“The introduction of the Chrysler, Jeep and Dodge electric vehicles provides a glimpse of the very near future and demonstrates that we are serious and well along in the development of bringing electric vehicles to market.”

These cars aren’t mock-ups. They’re operational prototypes Chrysler says we’ll see in test fleets next year. One of them — the company isn’t saying which — will be ready for sale by the end of 2010, the same deadline GM has set for the Volt.

“We are well ahead of where people think we are,” company co-president Jim Press said at the unveiling before taking a shot at cross-town rivals GM: “Perhaps that’s because we haven’t tooted our horn up to now.”

Chrysler isn’t tooting its horn with this announcement. It’s playing a Sousa march.

Although Chrysler’s recently introduced two hybrids, no one saw this coming from a company where sales are down 24 percent — about twice the declines seen by the industry as a whole.

But Chrysler’s been working nonstop on these cars since launching a dedicated EV team about a year ago. It rolled out a few concepts at the Detroit auto show in January, but no one took them seriously and even Chrysler’s own dealers grumbled it isn’t moving fast enough.

Unlike the gas-electric hybrids like the Toyota Prius and the forthcoming Honda Insight, the three Chrysler’s will be driven only by electricity.

The minivan and Wrangler will have electric motors (255 horsepower in the minivan, 268 in the Jeep) and small gasoline engines that will recharge the batteries. The as-yet-unnamed sports car will be a full-electric vehicle like the Tesla Roadster with performance to match.

The Dodge EV, which appears to be based on the Lotus Europa, has a 268-horsepower electric motor that will propel the car from 0 to 60 in less than 5 seconds. Chrysler says its lithium-ion battery will provide a range of 150 to 200 miles and charge in six to eight hours.

“It’s a great tribute to our engineers,” Tom LaSorda, company vice president, told the Detroit Free Press.

Photos by Chrysler. via: wired.com