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| "Gord Gray" <ggray@mnsi.net> 04/25/2010 05:40 AM |
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Lewenza wary of shrinking market
By Grace Macaluso, The Windsor Star April 24, 2010
CAW president Ken Lewenza also said he's awaiting further action on Marchionne's vision to sell more minivans, made at the Windsor Assembly Plant, overseas.
Although he's encouraged by the bright financial picture at Chrysler Group LLC, CAW president Ken Lewenza expressed concern Friday about the automaker's shrinking market share in the U.S.
"Obviously the operating profit in the first quarter of this year is a vote of confidence," he said. "But for workers, the biggest vote of confidence is going to be when we start increasing market share. That's the only job security we have."
Chrysler's market share in the United States hit a new low at under nine per cent and Marchionne has said it would decline further as the company reduces its use of incentives to sell vehicles.
On Wednesday, Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne unveiled the conglomerate's five-year strategy, which included further integration of the two automakers, while spinning off its non-automotive divisions into a separate company. Marchionne said the merger with Chrysler would enable Fiat to become a major global player in the automotive industry.
Lewenza also said he's awaiting further action on Marchionne's vision to sell more minivans overseas. "There's an extended vision from Fiat and that's going to be our ability to sell our minivans in the European market," said Lewenza. "Every time we ask that question, they say, 'The minivan still is incredibly popular in North America.'"
In fact, the Windsor Assembly Plant is running full throttle on three shifts, as well as scheduled overtime, to keep up with demand for a vehicle that has captured 85 per cent of the minivan segment.
However, that segment continues to shrink and it's uncertain how long the plant will be able to sustain three shifts. There are "some new products in the pipeline I've personally seen that haven't been allocated," said Lewenza. "But to be fair, no one at Auburn Hills took me aside and said, 'Mr. Lewenza that's your product.'"
Chrysler has plans to introduce a new crossover vehicle and a plug-in hybrid minivan. As well, the automaker plans to launch a new platform for the minivan in 2014.
"It will be a re-invention of the minivan -- a major launch," said Lewenza. "It's going to be much more attractive, not necessarily smaller, but more aerodynamic."
Meanwhile, the Ontario government remains hopeful that Chrysler's Brampton facility will capture an Alfa Romeo product, Sandra Pupatello, economic development and trade minister, said Friday.
"The Alfa 169 -- that full-size sedan segment car -- is the one that I think has a clear opportunity in Brampton, "said Pupatello. "I think we have a great shot at having it in Brampton, because it could be built on the same platform as the Chrysler 300 and the Dodge Challenger. That seems like a natural fit."
On Wednesday, Marchionne announced that Alfa Romeo Spider, a two-door sports car, will be launched in North America in 2012. But he did not reveal where it would be assembled, although he said Brampton, which operates on two shifts, was a possibility. Neither did Marchionne mention North American production of the Alfa 169, a sedan long touted as a vehicle that was destined for Brampton.
"It's just that Marchionne is taking his time, and he should," explained Pupatello.
"All eyes are on Fiat these days. They've got to be certain about what they're doing.
"And remember, the market isn't anywhere near the pre-recession numbers.
"Everybody's being really careful. And, I think that's wise."
Fiat designs should surprise
Chief's method is to make use of Italian flair
BY COLLEEN BARRY, ASSOCIATED PRESS, Posted: April 25, 2010
TURIN, Italy -- The world is still waiting to see what kind of auto design emerges from the alliance of Italy's Fiat and U.S. Chrysler. One thing is clear: There's a lot of Italian flair to draw on, in the person of Fiat's design chief Lorenzo Ramaciotti.
Ramaciotti helped design everything from the high-end Ferrari Enzo to the economical Peugeot 407 during his career at independent styling house Pininfarina. Expect some surprises ahead.
"Italian design can't be repetitive. It must be a design that is a little surprising, with something innovative from one model to the next," said Ramaciotti during an interview in his modest office at Fiat's Centro Stile, decorated with logos of the six Fiat brands whose style he commands.
How much of that Italian flair will seep into Chrysler's designs is still being worked out, nearly a year after Fiat took a controlling stake in the automaker. Chrysler has its own design operation, but Ramaciotti would be key partner in any cooperation.
In the Ramaciotti world, cars aren't mere vessels of transport -- but an expression of an idea. Fiat is fun and friendly, simple solutions. Alfa Romeo is fast, sporty, attention-grabbing.
"If you have a car that takes you from point A to point B, why not have it be nice? If you are capable, why not?" Ramaciotti asks.
Lancia, which is being twinned with the Chrysler brand, will be the harbinger of Italian design: "Good taste, proportionality, all the elements that we are recognized for," he said. By "we," he meant Italian design, not Fiat.
"Italian automobile design was for many years the beacon for the world. Now it has been weakened. Why? Because we exported our design culture," Ramaciotti said. First to Japan, where Italians designed a lot of cars in the 1970s. Then in Korea, for Daewoo and Hyundai, and now China.
Ramaciotti's first move at Fiat was to bring all of Fiat's brands, except the extremely expensive Ferrari, under one roof. No longer designing cars himself, Ramaciotti oversees the process -- keeping the creative staff on deadline -- at Fiat's design center at the Mirafiori plant in Turin.
Ramaciotti has a broad portfolio: the flagship Fiat brand, sporty Alfa Romeo, upmarket Lancia, luxury Maserati, amped-up Abarth and sturdy Fiat light commercial vehicles. The two companies will share platforms and the first Fiat to return to the U.S. market -- the Cinquecento, or 500 -- is being rolled out later this year, with a few tweaks aimed at American tastes.
The car is to look the same on the outside as the original compact retro-chic three-door hatchback that has charmed Europeans. But the U.S. market required some adjustments: wider seats, cupholders, arm rests, automatic transmissions and larger license plate holders. Fiat is offering colors, like sand, that are more suited to American tastes than, say, the Italian green-white-and-red striped paint job sold in Europe.
'Personality' helps sell it
"The general flavor of the car has remained very much Italian," Ramaciotti said. "It has such personality that we think that even the Americans will buy it in the Italian colors.
"Someone who buys a 500 does not buy it just as a means of transport, but because it is cute and European."
Fiat isn't expecting to sell huge volumes of the 500 in the U.S. -- around 50,000 to 80,000 a year -- figuring the appeal for the tiny car will mostly be in big cities. But it is the car that relaunched the Fiat brand in Europe. And it will be the Fiat that introduces American drivers to Chrysler's new bosses.
While the tiny 500 will be Fiat's Italian emissary to North America, the zippy new Giulietta, Alfa Romeo's latest launch, is unlikely to make the transatlantic passage. The Giulietta is a hatchback, and Americans have scorned hatchbacks, despite all their practicality, in favor of SUVs and crossovers, Ramaciotti said.
The Giulietta debuted at the Geneva, Switzerland, auto show and is to go on sale later this month in Europe. It is the car that is supposed to relaunch the Alfa Romeo brand and give it a new chance after a disappointing couple of years.
But what is to go to the U.S. is the new Compact platform that the Giulietta is built on -- a billion-dollar investment that CEO Sergio Marchionne wants to squeeze at least one million cars from.
In fact, much of what Fiat contributes to Chrysler will not be visible to consumers in terms of style but in the form of cleaner-burning engines and small-car platforms. In Europe, Fiat expects to take advantage of Chrysler's larger car and minivan platforms.
So far in the alliance, Fiat and Chrysler are maintaining separate design centers. Still, the Fiat and Chrysler alliance is slowly growing more entwined, as evident in the appointment of Lancia brand CEO Olivier Francois to run the Chrysler brand.
The Fiat Design Center has been holding back several new models, waiting for the crisis to abate.
Marchionne also said last week that such Jeep models as the new Grand Cherokee, and freshened versions of the Wrangler, Patriot and Compass will be sold in Europe.
Certain Dodge models could be sold in Europe as Fiats.
Chrysler and Lancia are to share future vehicles, with larger Chrysler models such as the 300C and Town & Country minivan branded as Lancias for Europe and compact or midsize Lancias rebadged as Chryslers for the U.S.
What's expected next
Analysts say they expect Fiat will announce plans for a new Panda in 2011, the next-generation Punto, new small vans, sometimes called multipurpose vehicles or MPVs, possibly based on Chrysler's successful minivan, still known in Europe as the Grand Voyager and in the U.S. as Town & Country. Fiat may also announce a new Lancia Ypsilon, a new Lancia Delta, as well as midsize and large sedans, based on Chrysler platforms. And there may be a new flagship car for Alfa Romeo.
Fiat, which is separating its automotive business from its heavy equipment manufacturing divisions, set a global sales target of 3.8 million cars and commercial vans in 2014, compared with 2.2 million last year. But Marchionne warned that sales in its core European markets will fall this year because of the end of cash-for-clunkers programs in Italy, France and Germany.
"To come out with a new car in such a depressed market means losing 20% of sales. The peak, when you theoretically should sell the most cars, is when you present the car. You risk ruining yourself at the best moment," Ramaciotti said.
"On the other hand, you can't rely only on the old lineup of cars, with the old cars for an eternity. It's a difficult choice."
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