Three of a kind

Chrysler has given us a quick glimpse of three concepts due to be unveiled in Detroit in January. They all show off new eco-friendly drivetrains that might power its next generation of cars, and they all look, well, ambitious.

First up is the blue Chrysler ecoVoyager, a four-door hybrid that, according to its designers, 'celebrates the romance of automobile travel'.

The ecoVoyager is powered by a lithium-ion battery pack that'll be good for some 40 miles of travel, supplemented by a dinky hydrogen fuel cell to extend overall range to 300 miles.

Although the monobox, cab-forward design looks the most realistic of the bunch, we're not holding out much hope of seeing the electric-hydrogen hybrid in production any time soon.

The green Jeep Renegade concept takes the same battery pack but mates it to a small diesel engine, giving fuel economy of 100mpg.  

It's a more realistic drivetrain than the ecoVoyager's, but we can't imagine the Renegade's speedster windscreen and all-aluminium body making it to production. Which is a pity, because it looks cool... in a kind of Queer-As-Folk-goes-21st-century way. 

And last but not least, the orange Dodge ZEO dispenses with trick hybrid drivetrains in favour of an electric-only propulsion system - a lithium-ion battery that Chrysler reckons should cover some 250 miles on a single charge.

Optimistic, yes, but we're more concerned with how those rear doors work - Chrysler says the ZEO is a genuine four-door.

We'll get to find out in Detroit.