Here there are the main highlights of Sergio Marchionne’s interview with Luca Ciferri, Editor-in-Chief of Automotive News Europe:
- Inevitable the move of merging Fiat and Chrysler by the year 2014
- Big effort on relaunching Europe operations
- 2013 total sales target: 4.3 million from which 2.6 million (60%) correspond to Chrysler. It means Chrysler sales will grow 8% while Fiat ones would decline 6%
- Problem with distribution of production in North America
- “Success” for the coming Chrysler 200, to be presented in Detroit 2013
- Regarding Chrysler 100 he thinks “is a great idea to provide dealers in the U.S. with two options in the compact segment”
- If Chrysler 100 gets produced will come to Europe as the new Lancia Delta
- Reason for poor results of Lancia Thema/Flavia/Voyager: selling a premium brand in a difficult market is tough. The market is getting smaller
- The Dodge Dart effectively started rolling out in late September. The target is unchanged
- He wants different body types for the next generation Chrysler Town & Country and Dodge Grand Caravan. Marketing study is on the way
- Fiat 500 results in America: great product. Different approach from different people in charge of its sales
- Jeep can reach 1 million units but it does not have the capacity right now
- The new SUV from Maserati, the Levante, will be built in Mirafiori, Turin with a lot of the underpinnings coming from the U.S.
- Jeep’s production in China: the company will remain in USA. It can do CKD units but everything coming from U.S. market.
- Alfa Romeo to VW: “there are some things that are not available for sale… I have zero interest in selling Alfa”
Source: Automotive News
Fiat Group World 