The Chrysler company is one deeply intertwined in the lore of America’s auto industry. It’s also a legacy brand that’s been tarnished over time. While Chrysler’s imprint may span generations – most notable during an automotive era when cars were unapologetically big, brash, and obstinately fashioned as living rooms on four wheels – the nearly 100-year-old carmaker has been rolling in neutral for quite some time. Today’s stable comprises just two models: the first a suburbanite family mover, the other a muscular, yet stodgy sedan. To say the brand needs a reboot is an understatement, especially among millennials and younger drivers oblivious to the automaker’s storied legacy. It all makes the Chrysler Halcyon Concept an essential effort to turn heads and deliver technological concepts into a drivable reality.
Chrysler’s Halcyon Concept interior comprises components manufactured using 95 percent “sustainable” materials. Most curious are the logos throughout the vehicle made from 100% recycled compact discs.
Chrysler plans to go fully electric by 2028, so the Halycon Concept could be seen as a herald of their plans to integrate everything from biometrics, augmented reality, artificial intelligence, environmental customization, and autonomous driving functionality into a futuristic and aerodynamic show car capable of rebooting the brand.
The Halycon Concept also operates as a design language teaser, one hopefully indicative of Chrysler’s plans to abandon their current tried, true, and noticeably tired designs.
Overhead view of the concept’s six doors ajar. The top acrylic-tinted, butterfly-hinged canopy serves as a third door for the Chrysler Halcyon Concept to make it easier for occupants to get into or out of the low slung vehicle.
The interior of the Chrysler Halcyon Concept is an immersive environment with an almost 360-degree range of view, possessing a duality that delivers a “digital detox” cockpit through stress-free autonomous features.
The vehicle’s raked profile seems almost eagerly angling to move from a standstill. Topped with a prominent helmet of window panels encapsulating the driver and its occupants, all sides offer a spacious view in nearly every direction. There’s a bit of Tesla Model 3, Polestar 6, and even Sony’s Vision-S Concept visible across the Halycon’s detailing, something indicative of the confluence of aerodynamic and EV technologies and the implications on shared aesthetics. Even so, the sum of Halcyon’s curves and crisp creases are energizing rather than merely reductive, and the concept will no doubt be a head turner at auto shows.
Four doors open out and are complemented by a pair of butterfly-hinged canopy panels that make getting in the Chrysler Halcyon Concept a “red carpet” affair.
Chrysler’s designers have found confidence in the Halcyon’s reductive silhouette, one contrasted by an audaciously equipped six-door configuration. A pair of passenger doors swing open from each side, while a pair of butterfly-hinged canopy panels open up to make egress and ingress from its low-profile ride a little easier.
The Chrysler Halcyon Concept is built on Stellantis’ STLA Large platform, one set to deliver an 800 Km/500 Mile range and marked for eight full-size vehicles based upon the platform from Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, Maserati, and Alfa Romeo.
To no surprise sustainability plays a prominent role in Chrysler’s plans, with the Halycon showcasing the brand’s future-forward manufacturing and material intentions throughout – note the use of recycled plastic water bottles transformed into laser-etched suede lining applied across the concept’s headrests. And for those of us nostalgic for the 1990s, you’ll be amused to learn the Halycon logos are made from 100% recycled compact discs.
Most importantly, the concept is paired with an 800-volt lithium-sulfur battery, an energy storage technology promising greater capacity with an estimated 60% reduction in carbon footprint when compared to today’s lithium-ion batteries.
The concept’s dimmable glass canopy and windshield can turn opaque with seats laid back, with an augmented-reality Stargazing Mode giving occupants an immersive experience.
The Chrysler Halcyon Concept is a bold proposition, one more visibly “tomorrow” in spirit even when compared to the brand’s recent Airflow Concept. The former is further off in the future from becoming an on-the-road reality, but we’d be more than willing to wait for the return of Chrysler’s halcyon days if it comes rolling in, silently powered by an 800-volt lithium-sulfur battery to greet us with six doors opened as the new – sometimes augmented – reality of interior cabins.