Chrysler Playing With The Idea Of Bringing Back A Sedan To Double Its Lineup Size

Chrysler has been without a marquee sedan since we waved a tearful goodbye to the 300 after the 2023 model year, and it's left the automakers lineup looking a bit, well, bleak. As it stands, there's just one vehicle — the Pacifica minivan — available at Chrysler dealerships. Well, a sedan-ish-shaped reinforcement may be on the way for the automaker. I say "ish," because what comes next probably won't be the conventional three-box sedan design we're all used to.

Very little is known about Chrysler's next sedan, but it almost certainly will not be some sort of Hemi-powered 300 revival (though I wouldn't totally put it past the company). Speaking with Automotive News, Scott Krugger, Stellantis' Head of North American Design, hinted that future products could "blur the lines" between sedans and utility vehicles and chase, what he calls, "white space opportunities." Think of vehicles like the Polestar 4 and Toyota Crown. They're not exactly sedans, but they're not exactly crossovers either. I mean, we sort of saw that with the now-dead Chrysler Airflow concept, but it leaned a bit more crossover.

"I think you're going to see a lot of these bleeding of segments moving forward," Krugger, who is responsible for design at Chrysler, Jeep, Dodge and Ram, told AutoNews.

It's not like the Stellantis' lone "sedan," the Dodge Charger, is exactly straightforward, either. Yes, it has a far more conventional sedan look than what Krugger is describing here, but it's also a liftback, which is one of the design aspects I absolutely love about the new Charger, despite the fact I'm sort of mixed on the rest of the package.

Krugger told AutoNews that Chrysler is "very much alive and well," and there's a roadmap laid out to revive the brand that'll be revealed during an upcoming investor presentation in May, but he did admit that it could use some "more clarity" when it comes to its positioning within Stellantis. Right now, the brand's central themes are "modern simplicity" and "innovative practicality." I don't know about you, but that sounds like a whole lot of nothing. What was Chrysler's last big innovation? Stow 'n Go? I need something new, dog.

Still, if these are going to be Chrysler's guiding principles, then maybe we're going to see it focus more on creative packaging and family-friendly solutions, rather than out-and-out luxury, something it tried to do in the past with very little success.

At the very least, something is cooking at Chrysler, which means its mono-lineup won't last forever. Krugger, who reports to CEO Antonio Filosa and global design boss Ralph Gilles, told Automotive News that there is "a lot going on in the studio," so we should start seeing Chrysler's best laid plans sooner rather than later.

"There's a lot of interest in [Chrysler] from the highest levels of this company right now," he said to AutoNews. "We know there's a place for Chrysler."