By Christopher A. Sawyer
The Virtual Driver

(January 19, 2016) When he first joined Chrysler, current head of design Ralph Gilles used to take a specially tuned Dodge Caravan to the Waterford Hills race track and mix it up with less utilitarian vehicles. A firm believer that useful vehicles didn’t have to be boring, Gilles brought the lessons learned from that experience to the design of the new Chrysler Pacifica.

Chrysler has consolidated its minivan offerings by killing off the Dodge Caravan (the current model will be phased out over the next 18 months), and replacing the Town & Country name with the Pacifica badge.

The Pacifica’s design cues are taken from the Chrysler 200 sedan, and mixed with a hint of crossover stance to create a vehicle that is capable of taking on the Honda Odyssey and Toyota Sienna, while also keeping interlopers like the Kia Sedona at bay.

Chrysler engineers threw out the Daimler-era platform and started with a clean sheet of paper for its fifth-generation minivan.  The floor was lowered, which lowered the step-in height and seating position of the driver and passengers, and the windshield rake increased. Room was made for 20-inch wheels and tires, and the wheelbase and front and rear tracks have been increased.

Inside, the Pacifica provides just under 200 cubic feet of cargo and passenger space — an increase of 10 ft.3 over the outgoing models — there’s more leg room for front seat passengers, and Stow ’n Go seating is (with one exception) standard. You can even tilt the second row captain’s chair forward with a baby seat strapped in place to make entry to the third row easier, or add an 37-pound. removable center seat to the second row to bring carrying capacity up to eight people.

Yes, there’s a Ridgid-supplied integral vacuum that can reach all of the nooks and crannies with its 11.4-ft. hose, but you can also attach an 11.4-ft. extension should you want to go into business with a mobile car interior cleaning service. There’s also an umbrella holder slot next to the driver’s seat that frees up space in the door pockets. Power outlets are almost as prolific as cupholders (there are 13 of those), with eight USB ports, two 12-volt outlets, and a single 120-volt three-pronged outlet on the passenger-side C-pillar trim panel.

Also, the available 10-inch monitors integrated into the back of the front seats have separate HDMI, Aux and USB ports, feature a number of built-in games (including tic-tac-toe, Sudoku and solitaire), and have a trip tracking app that allows kids to check to see if they’re there yet.

There are two powertrain options, both built around Chrysler’s 3.6-liter Pentastar V6. The standard setup mates the 287 hp/262 lb.-ft. gasoline engine to a nine-speed automatic with heavily revised software programming. The engine weighs four pounds less and is five percent more efficient, and makes use of active noise cancellation to allow for earlier torque converter lockup to improve fuel economy.

The second powertrain modifies the V6 to run an Atkinson cycle, which lowers output to 248 hp and 230 lb.-ft. of torque, but mates this motor with a Fiat-Chrysler designed electronic CVT transmission. The e-CVT’s two motor-generator units can be used to drive the plug-in hybrid Pacifica in full EV mode, though only one of the motors is used for this purpose in hybrid mode. The other sends its output to the 16 kW-hr lithium-ion battery pack located under the second row of seats.

By placing the battery pack amidships, Chrysler had to jettison the Stow ’n Go second row seats, but the compromise was worth it as the plug-in Pacifica is capable of 30 miles of electric driving on a full charge. That, said Chrysler, is more than most families drive each morning, and gives the Pacifica an EPA equivalent fuel economy rating (MPGe) of 80 and range of 540 miles. The design has been package-protected for the use of an electric rear axle should the market demand an all-wheel drive minivan, but that misses the point.

The new platform gives Chrysler the base for a family of hybrid-capable crossovers for both its namesake brand and Dodge, putting its fuel economy efforts where they will do the most good.

The Virtual Driver