Louis Rhodes (August 31, 1960 - ) is an American engineer. He was born at the Detroit Osteopathic Hospital in

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...

. He was employed as the director of design engineering at

Chrysler LLC Stellantis North America (officially FCA US and formerly Chrysler ()) is one of the " Big Three" automobile manufacturers in the United States, headquartered in Auburn Hills, Michigan. It is the American subsidiary of the multinational automotiv ...

, an American automobile manufacturer. He has been in charge of various projects as the ME Four-Twelve, and the

Chrysler Stellantis North America (officially FCA US and formerly Chrysler ()) is one of the " Big Three" automobile manufacturers in the United States, headquartered in Auburn Hills, Michigan. It is the American subsidiary of the multinational automoti ...

Group's Minivan Stow ’n Go seating. On September 13, 2007, he was appointed president of ENVI, a division of Chrysler formed to develop electric-drive vehicles. Louis Rhodes graduated from

Western Michigan University Western Michigan University (Western Michigan, Western or WMU) is a public research university in Kalamazoo, Michigan. It was initially established as Western State Normal School in 1903 by Governor Aaron T. Bliss for the training of teachers ...

(WMU) in 1983 with a

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University of ...

mechanical engineering Mechanical engineering is the study of physical machines that may involve force and movement. It is an engineering branch that combines engineering physics and mathematics principles with materials science, to design, analyze, manufacture, and ...

. After graduating from WMU, Louis was appointed as the senior release engineer at

General Motors The General Motors Company (GM) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automotive manufacturing company headquartered in Detroit, Michigan, United States. It is the largest automaker in the United States and ...

until 1986. He was then employed from 1986 until 1987 as an engineering manager at

Boeing Aircraft Company The Boeing Company () is an American multinational corporation that designs, manufactures, and sells airplanes, rotorcraft, rockets, satellites, telecommunications equipment, and missiles worldwide. The company also provides leasing and product ...

. From 1987 until 1993, he was the director of CAD/CAE services at MSX International. Since leaving MSX International in 1993, Louis Rhodes has been employed at Chrysler. He has held positions within the product engineering and product design organizations and has also been the director of advanced vehicle concepts and innovation groups.

ME Four- Twelve

One of Louis Rhodes's large projects as the Chrysler group's chief design engineer was the

ME Four-Twelve The ME Four-Twelve is an American high-performance concept car that was engineered, developed and produced by Chrysler in 2004. The name is a combination of the Mid-Engine with Four turbochargers on a Twelve cylinder engine. Background There wer ...

ca

Louis Rhodes worked in conjunction with Trevor Creed and Wolfgang Bernhard on the project, with an emphasis on keeping it a secret. In the efforts of secrecy, Louis only involved a few suppliers and had various code names for the car that could pinpoint the source of any leaked information. The ME Four-Twelve is a high-performance car that was unveiled at the 2004 Detroit auto show after being an idea merely 12 months prior. The ME Four-Twelve is made of aluminum honeycomb covered in carbon fiber panels and can go from 0-to-60 mph in only 2.9 seconds. Additionally, this car has a top speed of and .

Stow ’n Go

Louis Rhodes is also responsible for the creation of Stow ’n Go seating in the Chrysler Town & Country and the Dodge Grand Caravan minivans. Stow ’n Go seating became known to be a reality after Louis Rhodes and his son, Jonathan Rhodes, had been tinkering with an Erector Set in their kitche

Stow ’n Go seating was revolutionary because unlike the fold ''on to'' the floor seating option offered in minivans, Stow ’n Go seating allows the second and third-rows of seats to fold ''into'' floo

For this revolutionary idea, Louis Rhodes received first place for the 2005 Walter P Chrysler Technology Award for U.S Patent No. 6,955,386 issued on October 18, 2005, for “underfloor stowage of a folding seat in a vehicle"

ENVI

Louis Rhodes's most is recent achievement is his appointment to the president of ENVI on September 13, 200

ENVI is Chrysler's vehicle development initiative that is focused on being environmentally responsible. The mission of ENVI is to design and produce Chrysler, Dodge, and Jeep vehicles that use pure electric or hybrid powertrain

At the 2008 North American International Auto Show, Chrysler LLC unveiled three environmentally friendly concept vehicles. The vehicles shown were the Chrysler ecoVoyager that would be powered by a lithium-ion battery pack, The Jeep Renegade with a Bluetec diesel, and the Dodge ZEO which would be an electric-only vehicle powered by a 64-kilowatt-hour lithium-ion battery.Higgins, Tim. (2008, January 14). 3 concepts to exhibit a shift toward environmental balance. Detroit Free Press. 3-3B

Notes

References

* Abuelsamid, Sam
“Chrysler turns green with ENVI”
“AutoBlog”, September 14, 2007. * DeLorenzo, Matt
“Surprise Supercar”
“Road and Track”, March, 2004. * Higgins, Tim. (2008, January 14). 3 concepts to exhibit a shift toward environmental balance. Detroit Free Press. 3-3B * Jewett, Dale. (2004, January 12). Supercar conceived under cloak of secrecy. Automotive News, 32 * Truett, Richard
“Chrysler’s gas-free future”
“Automotive News”, September 13, 2007.

“Press Kit”, January 5, 2004. * ttp://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/04-10-2006/0004337507&EDATE= “Annual Walter P. Chrysler Technology Award” “PRNewswire”, April 10, 2005.
“Chrysler LLC creates ENVI”
“Chrysler Media Site”, September 13, 2007. {{DEFAULTSORT:Rhodes, Louis 1960 births Living people Chrysler executives