What Ever Happened to Chrysler's Composite Concept Vehicle (CCV)?

A reader of this blog (”Fiero Larry”) recently asked a great question: what ever happened to the Composite Concept Vehicle (CCV) announced with great ballyhoo by Chrysler in the 1990s?

He says: “They claimed that the cost of a current Neon body was 80 percent of the cost of making a car and could be reduced by 75 percent by molding and assembling a few pieces and painting only outside surfaces. They pointed out that there is a tremendous investment in sheet metal stamping tools, welding, etc, and the investment and environmental protection costs of a painting operation to dip and paint all inside and outside body surfaces are very high too.”

It’s a great question in its own right-how often have you seen an announcement of some wonderful development, and then never heard the follow-up? And it’s even more interesting today because some likened the CCV to a Citroen, and now Chrysler is re-inventing itself as a maker and seller of small Fiat cars. What happened to its own revolutionary technology? I have an opinion, but first a little back story.

Chrysler designers wanted to develop a small “world” car for the Chinese market and unveiled a car whose body could be injection molded in a mammoth 8,800-ton machine developed by Husky Injection Molding Systems of Bolton, Ontario. To form the body in white, an outer molding is fitted to an inner for both the right and left sides. Then the two halves are joined with adhesives. Color is molded in, eliminating paint lines. A tubular steel frame is bolted on the bottom to boost stiffness. The car would have been powered by a Briggs & Stratton 25-hp, 800-cc engine.

So what happened?

First off, I’m sure every person involved has a different take on why the project failed. But as someone who has been writing about plastics engineering and supply management since 1977, here’s my two cents.

On July 17, 1997, Chrysler CEO Robert Eaton announced that Chrysler, then the world’s most profitable car company, would merge with Daimler-Benz.

Chrysler’s emergence from near-death had been fueled by the Extended Enterprise concept pioneered by President and former VP Procurement Thomas Stallkamp. Chrysler relied on teams of suppliers to do the engineering and development work on new cars. It worked like a charm on the Viper.

The CCV would have been the ultimate test. A mammoth team of all-star engineering talent had been assembled to develop the CCV:

• Ticona developed a proprietary polyester-based resin that could be injection molded for the CCV.

• Husky agreed to build the pioneering press and invest $10 million in the project.

• Paragon Die & Engineering of Grand Rapids, MI, built molds more than three times bigger than anything they had ever previously built. Weber Manufacturing of Midland, Ontario investigated new methods to produce molds faster and at lower cost.

Molding superstar Fred Keller of Cascade Engineering was involved. Partners were also on board to develop the adhesives and handling systems for the CCV components.

The entire process was theoretical, and required a lot of time and patience. Daimler did not have the culture of working with outside engineering partners to the extent of Stallkamp’s Chrysler.

In the meantime, company executives thought the idea was so great it should be developed for the North American market. That meant everything from more structure for crash resistance to air bags. The CCV suddenly was starting to feel like a Neon. Why bother?

Big technology questions were unanswered, and at the same time the business case went up in smoke.

I’m sure there are Design News readers who were involved in this project who can jump in and add their own two cents and elaboration. If my reasoning is faulty, please jump in.

Pictured is Chrysler’s CCV: