Last summer Ichiro Suzuki was selected as the MVP of the baseball All-Star game and got the keys to one of the first Chevy Tahoe Two-Mode Hybrids. At the time, those SUVs were still more than six months away from production. This year, Chrysler is getting ready to launch their own full-size hybrid SUVs and they may be awarding one of the early production Aspen Hybrids to a women golfer at the Ginn Tribute LPGA tournament this weekend. If any of the 144 golfers, including Annika Sorenstarn, shoot a hole-in-one during the tournament they will get one of the first Aspens.

The Aspen and its twin Dodge Durango hybrid don't go on sale until this fall but they are set up very much like the corresponding GM hybrids. The same two-mode hybrid transmission is paired up with a large V8, in Chrysler's case the 5.7L HEMI. The HEMI is also equipped with cylinder deactivation allowing it to run on either four or eight cylinders. The nickel metal hydride battery pack is installed below the second row seat. While GM is offering their hybrids with either rear or all wheel drive, Chrysler is only planning to offer the Aspen/Durango with the latter configuration. The Chrysler press release is after the jump.

The second member of the Two-Mode hybrid partnership to bring a vehicle to the streets following GM's launch of the Tahoe/Yukon hybrids will be Chrysler. The Dodge Durango and Chrysler Aspen Hybrids don't actually go on sale to the the public until later this fall. However, the first "saleable" Aspen hybrid rolled silently off the assembly line at Chrysler's Newark, DE assembly plant on the March 10. So-called saleable units are typically built many months ahead of retail sales and built from production intent parts on production units. These vehicles are generally kept for internal use including durability testing and final validation of hardware and software. These vehicles will also be used for early media drives that will likely take place this summer. The Chrysler hybrids are using the same hybrid transmission used by GM supplied from that company's Baltimore transmission plant. The only difference is the case casting to allow it to interface with the Chrysler V-8 engine.

[Source: Red Letter Dodge]