'We're just not telling you which one it is,' joked Chrysler Vice Chairman Tom LaSorda.

The range-extended electric vehicles will be able to travel 40 miles off their batteries, being developed with General Electric Co., before a gas engine kicks in and supplies additional electricity. The Dodge sports car would have a range of about 200 miles before needing a recharge.

The announcement comes one-week to the day after General Motors Corp. officially unveiled its range-extended electric compact car, the Chevrolet Volt. The Volt, which GM promises to deliver by November 2010, will have a 40 mile range on electric only before a gasoline engine starts and begins providing energy for the vehicle.

'We believe in the saying, 'Actions speak louder than words,'' LaSorda said.

Instead of developing an all-new platform, Chrysler has adopted a strategy to electrify current vehicles, which speeds up the development, Klegon said. Additionally, Chrysler will consider offering electric versions of more of its lineup in the future.

'We're not talking about a car, we're talking about a full line up of vehicles that will be electric,' said Chrysler Chief Executive Bob Nardelli.

The development strategy includes producing front-wheel, rear-wheel and four-wheel electric drive systems to be used with current vehicles, Klegon said. Only the two-seat sports car has a new platform, which was developed with Lotus.

Vice Chairman Jim Press said using an existing platform will help Chrysler bring an electric vehicle to market faster than developing a new platform.

'Our commitment was not to public relations but to the consumers,' he said. 'We want to move vehicles from the lab to the showroom. Our longer term plan is the electrification of the entire line up.'

Klegon estimated that by 2020 nearly 50 percent of all vehicles on the road will be electrically driven due to federal mileage standards and consumer demands.

In 2009, Chrysler expects to have more than 100 electric vehicles in developmental fleets, testing different battery packs and durability concerns.

'We have a very stringent validation process for all of our battery developers,' said. Doug Quigley, product engineering executive at ENVI, Chrysler's newly formed eco-technology group.

Rising gas prices and a decline in U.S. auto sales have put GM, Chrysler and Ford Motor Co. under pressure to break away from their dependence on trucks and SUVs for profits and focus on more fuel-efficient vehicles.

Chrysler's sales have taken the hardest hit, and the Auburn Hills-based automaker appeared to be behind other automakers, which have touted plans to launch electric vehicles in the next few years.

Toyota Motor Corp. also is pushing to get a plug-in electric vehicle to market in 2010, while Ford, which is testing vehicles on roads in California, says it is five years away from producing them in significant numbers.

Nardelli said the technologies the company displayed would be accelerated if Congress funds a $25 billion loan program to help automakers and their suppliers modernize their plants to make more fuel-efficient vehicles.

He said if the loans aren't available, the production of electric vehicles would be slowed by constraints in financing and the development process, and amid the industry's current struggles, that could lead to more layoffs and further production capacity cuts.

'There's only a limited amount of liquidity,' Nardelli said. But he denied that Chrysler showed off its electric prototypes because Congress is considering the loan funding this week.