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<\/p>\n<\/div>My favorite minivan story comes from the Chrysler Pacifica\u2019s launch last year in Los Angeles. I took the stylish, 3.6-liter, V-6-powered seven-seater to my 6-year-old nephew\u2019s elementary school. No one appreciates minivans more than kids, and I looked forward to Henry\u2019s friends (Henrys are everywhere in my family) enjoying Chrysler\u2019s latest tricks. But one first-grader was resistant.<\/p>\n
\u201cMr. Payne, my father has a Model S,\u201d he said confidently, as if there was nothing that could impress him after the Tesla experience.<\/p>\n
I agreed the electric Model S is one of the seven wonders of the auto world, but that he wouldn\u2019t be disappointed by the Pacifica. After a half-hour roaming the Chrysler\u2019s interior \u2014 making seats magically disappear into the floor, exploring backseat theater screens, running the vacuum cleaner, sliding doors with a wave of the foot \u2014 the kids were impressed. Even my early skeptic.<\/p>\n
\u201cMr. Payne, this car is better than my dad\u2019s Model S!\u201d he exclaimed.<\/p>\n
Don\u2019t look now, Tesla, but the coolest ride in town just got cooler. The Pacifica is now available as a plug-in hybrid.<\/p>\n
When Chrysler invented minivans three decades ago, it birthed one of the most innovative vehicles on the planet \u2014 the Swiss Army knife of the auto industry. But their boxy, dowdy shape branded them as mom-mobiles, and women fled the segment for SUVs. With Pacifica, Chrysler has gone a long way to erasing that stigma<\/a>.<\/p>\n The hybrid EV is the coup de grace.<\/p>\n First, a disclaimer. I am a hybrid skeptic. Equipping a big, family vehicle with a second power source (gas engine plus battery) comes at a huge variable cost (back-of-the-envelope math with Chrysler developers puts the hybrid cost at $5,000 to $7,000 north of a comparably equipped gas-fired minivan) that takes years to make up in gas savings. But government mandates to build zero-emission vehicles put automakers in an awkward position: How to sell vehicles few want?<\/p>\n Chrysler\u2019s minivan turns this into a positive. In reinventing the minivan, engineers built the Pacifica from the ground up to have a plug-in option. What could be cooler than a minivan that doesn\u2019t use gas?<\/p>\n Pacifica was designed with a best-in-class 0.30 drag-coefficient. Increased torsional rigidity to take a big battery. A battery big enough to haul its girth around town for 30 miles on electrons \u2014 but also qualify for Uncle Sugar\u2019s full $7,500 tax credit. $7,500! I didn\u2019t pay that much for my first car.<\/p>\n Bottom line: Buy a nicely equipped, $42,000 Pacifica Hybrid Premium, subtract the tax credit, and you\u2019ve got a cheaper ride than the regular, gas-powered Touring \u2014 and it will save hundreds of dollars at the pump. Who says there\u2019s no free lunch?<\/p>\n Chrysler prefers the term \u201chybrid\u201d to deflect range-anxiety concerns that come with the word \u201cplug-in,\u201d but this 4,900-pound bowling ball works just like a plug-in Chevy Volt.<\/p>\n Plug it in overnight and it\u2019ll go 30 miles (the Volt will do 58) on nothing but battery. On our drive around the rolling hills of north Los Angeles, most media drivers were getting 36 miles. No way, you say. Payne, you\u2019re snorting the Kool-Aid.<\/p>\n Well, you\u2019d have a point, because the physics of the U.S.S. Pacifica means that \u2014 unlike the little Volt skiff \u2014 it does have to call on the V-6 gas engine for the heavy lifting. Like hard stoplight acceleration. Or going up hills. Or cruising at more than 75 on the highway.<\/p>\n But these are momentary asks in a daily commute, so for the most part Pacifica comes by its 30-mile EV range honestly. More importantly, its combined 538-mile battery-gasoline range (the Volt gets 420) means fewer visits to gas stations. I averaged a compact car-like 31.5 mpg over 122 miles.<\/p>\n