AUBURN HILLS, MICH. — The third floor of Chrysler's global headquarters, the Product Design Office, is the most secure part of the building. The rare visitor who walks down these brightly lit halls has already stood for two bag searches and had his cellphone checked to make sure it's not a camera.
The studios themselves -- echoing open spaces under rows of fluorescent lights -- are scrubbed of sensitive materials before outsiders are allowed in. White boards are erased and car covers thrown over new projects that can't be moved.
It's here that Doug Quigley and his small band of inventors are working frantically trying to engineer a miracle.
Or pull another rabbit out of Chrysler's hat. Or wrench victory, with actual wrenches, from the jaws of defeat. Choose your favorite metaphor that conveys the longest of odds and the slimmest of hopes.
Quigley, engineering executive for Chrysler's ENVI team, and his boss, director Lou Rhodes, are responsible for developing a line of radically different vehicles for Chrysler: plug-in hybrid minivans, Jeeps and crossovers that go 40 miles on all-electric power, as well as all-electric sports cars that bolt from 0 to 60 mph in 4.8 seconds and go 100 to 150 miles on a charge.
(ENVI is derived from the first four letters of "environment," with "NV" standing for "new vehicles.")
These vehicles, says Quigley, could "not only save the company but even the industry, and even at some point affect things like national security."
To those unfamiliar with Chrysler's long, erratic history, Quigley's pronouncements may seem unrealistic, or downright crazy. After all, Chrysler is hanging on by its fingernails. All 30 of its factories are shuttered until at least Jan. 19. In December, the company's monthly sales plunged 53% compared with a year earlier.
Even with the recent $4-billion government bridge loan, most experts think Chrysler can't survive the year as an independent company.
Quigley, though, is tuning out the predictions of doom. "We're not going to listen to it," he says. "It's destructive and it doesn't change a damn thing."
It's dark all over Chrysler-land, but on the third floor of HQ here in Auburn Hills, the lights burn all night.
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Out of the ditch
The fourth-and-long, Hail-Mary mentality has been part of Chrysler's corporate culture from the beginning. Caroming between disaster and prosperity for 80 years, the company has saved itself time and again with great engineering or expressive, emotional design (though, it should be noted, rarely both at the same time).
