Innovation Overview

A Heritage of Innovation and Engineering Firsts

All automobile manufacturers build vehicles, but Chrysler Group LLC creates entirely new automotive categories. Within a decade of operation, our leadership and innovation earned us the label of Detroit’s “engineering company.”

Here are some of our proud milestones:

  • World’s first sport-utility vehicle: 1946 the Jeep® CJ-2A (first marketed as a delivery, work and recreational vehicle)
  • Pioneered automotive wind tunnel development with Orville Wright1 and ushered in the era of modern automotive aerodynamic design
  • Developed the HEMI® engine: 1950s
  • First to put a modern radio in an automobile
  • America’s first “Muscle Car”: the 1955 Chrysler C-300
  • Key-Start Ignition System
  • First minivan: 1984

1 Orville Wright™ by The Wright family Foundation, and under the license through Corbis, Corporation.
HEMI is a registered trademark of Chrysler Group LLC.

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