Fiat Demerger

Just as Fiat and Chrysler are drawing nearer, the sprawling Fiat entity will be going through an important separation. Fiat’s split, called a demerger, will set up two companies pending stockholder approval: Fiat (autos) and Fiat Industrial, the latter which will constitute everything else the company is involved in such as construction and agricultural equipment.

Alfa Romeo is part of the former group which includes Fiat, Lancia, Maserati and Ferrari as well as the Chrysler Group which consists of Chrysler, Dodge, Ram and Jeep. Sergio Marchionne, the CEO of Fiat and Chrysler, envisions that the combined automotive group will sell 6 million vehicles annually by 2014. That number would mesh well with Marchionne’s proclamation in December 2008 that in order to be profitable and to maximize scale, car manufacturers would need to sell 5.5 million units annually.

Centennial Celebration

The venerable Alfa Romeo brand will be marking its centennial this June, a make once considered threatened as Fiat absorbed Chrysler. As part of Fiat’s five year plan, Alfa Romeo will be tied in closely with the Chrysler brand, sharing a number of car platforms and models. The first Alfas to be sold will include a midsize SUV, a sedan and a station wagon. Soon thereafter, a hatchback and small, sport convertible are expected with a larger luxurious SUV and upscale compact car arriving in 2014.

The larger of the two SUVs will be underpinned by the same platform powering a current Chrysler product, perhaps the Dodge Journey or Jeep Grand Cherokee or next generation Jeep Liberty. That vehicle will be positioned to compete against the popular BMW X3.

US Distribution

Fiat has yet to announce how and where Alfa Romeo vehicles will be sold, but expect some of the better performing Chrysler and Dodge dealerships to be offered the brand. That move would help model-strapped dealers sell more iron while quickly giving Alfa Romeo access to a well entrenched dealer network.

While Alfa Romeo may be a threatened brand its Lancia stablemate has been bordering on extinction for many years now. In announcing his five-year plan, Marchionne said that Lancia would get eight new models, six of which will be underpinned by existing or soon to be released Chrysler architecture. Unlike Alfa Romeo, Fiat, Ferrari and Maserati, Lancia doesn’t look as if it will make it stateside, remaining chiefly a eurocentric brand for now.

That window will remain open only until a whole bunch of newer products begin to appear next spring including the Ford Fiesta, the Chevy Cruze as well as several hybrid and pure electric cars arriving from a variety of manufacturers. I don’t believe that consumers will embrace every new hybrid or EV that comes to the market, but I believe that Chrysler’s aging fleet may not be able to change over fast enough to keep up with the onslaught.

Alfa Dodgeo? That’ll Work!

Perhaps sensing that time is truly of the essence for Chrysler, word is coming forth that Fiat may marry the Dodge and Alfa Romeo names. Alfa Dodgeo won’t be the name of some newly minted brand for the automaker, rather Alfa Romeo models could find themselves rebadged and sold as Dodges in the US while Dodge models being sold in Europe would carry the Alfa Romeo name.

There are some similarities between Dodge and Alfa Romeo that most people don’t know about at least that is what Fiat is indicating. Both brands sell “muscle cars” in their respective markets, but even that definition has different meanings where these kinds of cars are produced. The Viper is a true, blue sports cars while the Challenger represents the current iteration of the pony car theme for Dodge.

“The level of competition between these two brands is tremendous because they are both going after the same customer,” Marchionne said in an interview with Autocar magazine. “Dodge is the American muscle car, while Alfa Romeo is the European muscle car. How we dovetail these two brands is very important.”

I haven’t seen Alfa Romeo models up close and personal in many years, but most of their muscle cars are smaller and narrower than what the average American driver prefers to drive although I could certainly see the Spider and Competizione finding a following in the states, but only if they’re sold under the Alfa Romeo brand. But that’s just my opinion.

Source: Autocar

See Also — Alfa Romeo

The Fiat Group (Fiat SpA) is looking to move some of its production to the US, specifically the development of one or more of its Alfa Romeo models. Fiat produces Alfa Romeo, Ferrari, Maserati, Lancia, and Fiat vehicles in addition to trucks and agricultural equipment.

According to Forbes, Fiat is considering partnering with BMW for US production, but is also looking at a US partner, perhaps Ford. Or, as Automotive News is reporting, the automaker may purchase unused factory capacity from GM, Ford, or Chrysler.

A third alternative for the Fiat Group would be to expand production at one of its eleven Case New Holland factories which produce agricultural equipment.

Regardless of the path chosen by Fiat, production could begin as soon as 2011 with the ultimate goal of producing 150,000 passenger vehicles annually.