ESX2: Lightening the Load

In cutting the costs of building a hybrid car, where the powertrain typically is the big-ticket component, Chrysler looked to the body. ESX2 is lighter, quicker and more electronically advanced than its predecessors, as it combines advances made with the Plymouth Prowler and the plastic Composite Concept Vehicle. It helps the car achieve up to 80 miles per gallon in computer simulations.

The very skeleton of the car, its frame, is entirely aluminum, as first seen with the Prowler. The ESX2 body weighs half that of the 1998 Dodge Intrepid. It's this lighter load that contributes to ESX2's fuel efficiency. And by sandwiching additional aluminum between the car's inner and outer panels, it meets federal side impact regulations.

Bonded to this aluminum frame is ESX2's thermoplastic polyester body, made of the same material found in plastic pop bottles -- polyethylene terephtalate (PET). This new technology, first shown with the Composite Concept Vehicle, has numerous advantages over traditional steel bodies:

* The material is almost 100 percent recyclable. Today's plastic automobile could be recycled into another car, as well as clothing, carpeting or building materials.

* The stamping process is simplified and economical: six large panels are needed for ESX2, compared to 80 steel panels in a conventional vehicle such as the Dodge Intrepid.

* It takes three minutes to build a plastic body; other traditional processes take more than three times as long.

In another move to increase fuel efficiency, the car reduces its wind drag as it reaches 30 miles per hour. To accomplish this, the rocker panels drop closer toward the ground, while a spoiler deploys and a wind screen lowers behind the grill.