Maker of Jeep and Dodge plans to kill chrome on cars, citing risks to those who make it

Chrome’s century-long reign as that added bit of flash and glamour on new cars may be coming to an end. For least one major auto maker, environmental and serious health concerns are outweighing its aesthetic appeal.

Chrome’s century-long reign as that added bit of flash and glamour on new cars may be coming to an end. For least one major auto maker, environmental and serious health concerns are outweighing its aesthetic appeal.

Chrome has long provided an eye-catching sparkle, creating an upscale look while also protecting unpainted metal car parts from corrosion. It’s served as a by-word for (especially American) automotive opulence.

“Chrome on a car is the automotive equivalent of using jewelry on an outfit,” said Leslie Kendall, head curator of the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles.

But Stellantis – the company that makes Dodge, Jeep, Ram, Fiat, and Maserati vehicles – among others, is committed to doing away with chrome on all its new models.

The plan even has a name. Inside Stellantis, it’s called “Death of Chrome,” said Stellantis’s chief global designer, Ralph Gilles. Stellantis vehicles, including its newest Jeep model, will sport badges and trim pieces that may not have chrome’s mirror-like shine but customers will come to like them even better, Gilles promises.

“Death of Chrome” comes in response to chrome plating’s lesser-known dark side. Hexavalent chromium, or “chromium 6,” the form of the element chromium involved in the plating process, is an aggressive cancer-causing agent, according to government regulators in the United States and Europe.

“Hexavalent chromium is a carcinogen that is the second most potent toxic air contaminant identified by the state,” the California Air Resources Board said in a statement provided to CNN. “It is 500 times more toxic than diesel exhaust and has no known safe level of exposure.”