Fiat cancelled its dividend payment and delayed the redesign of the Alfa Romeo 147, Fiat Panda and Lancia Ypsilon by a year. — Renault and Nissan are delaying their participation in joint venture plants in India and Morocco. …
Automotive News – Automaker News Feeds – http://www.autonews.com/
Feb 022009
The plan: 7 Fiat vehicles for US
industry news, new cars
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Jan 252009
Alfa Romeo MiTo, plus a vehicle for one of Chrysler‘s brands. A vehicle on Fiat’s C-Evo platform made at a US Chrysler plant, possibly a Dodge Caliber …
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From MotorTrend
Could we be seeing non-supercar Italian automobiles on U.S. streets again sooner than expected? Fiat Group CEO Sergio Marchionne told reporters at the Paris Motor Show today that Fiat has stepped up plans to reintroduce the Alfa Romeo brand into the U.S. by 2010, rather than 2011 or 2012 as previously reported.
The Fiat/Alfa saga has been going on for months now. We’ve been following it since March, when Marchionne first confirmed that Fiat Group wanted to return to the U.S. Since then, details have been scarce, but the basic plan appears to be to bring the Fiat 500 here first, then start bringing over Alfa cars. Fiat Group has been consistently quoted as saying Alfa will reach the U.S. in 2011 or 2012, and that a key element of the plan is securing a U.S. manufacturing site, likely in partnership with Chrysler or one of the other Detroit 3. While a deal has still not been announced, Marchionne appears to be confident enough in the plan to bump up Alfa’s return date.
“In 2010 we should be there with distribution,” Marchionne told the ANSA news agency.
The announcement comes as a surprise, not only because no manufacturing deal has been announced, but because at the same time, Marchionne was quoted by the Apcom news agency warning about the instability of the auto market.
“There is uncertainty everywhere, the market has lost its sense of reason,” said Marchionne. “We must look very carefully at the fourth quarter, and then we’ll be able to make a better estimate for 2009.”
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Despite those concerns, Marchionne told Apcom that Fiat Group’s 2008 forecasts remain the same. The group is targeting net profit between 2.4 billion euros and 2.6 billion euros ($3.82 billion to $4 billion), or 1.90 euros to 2 euros ($3.02 to $3.18) per share.
While Fiat/Alfa-in-the-U.S. details are still hard to come by, when Marchionne speaks, we listen. Given everything he’s done for Fiat Group so far, if anyone can bring affordable Italian cars back to the U.S., he can.
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Just when you think you’re about to put a fine Italian sports sedan in your garage, they take it away again — after announcing Alfa Romeo would return to U.S. shores after a fifteen year absence, parent company Fiat‘s plans to set up a local production facility and dealer network have suffered repeated delays. And now CEO Sergio Marchionne is moving back the quadrifoglio brand’s arrival date yet again, saying a launch won’t occur until at least 2011.
Flush with cash thanks its to business acumen and the success of its 500 hatchback, Fiat has been bucking global trends recently,posting strong sales and even increasing production. And while talks to build American-market Alfas at empty Chrysler factories appear to have fizzled, recently Marchionne declared that “in 2010 we should be there with distribution” in the U.S., and a tiny number of 8C Competizione supercars even went on sale this month. But it seems that even Fiat can’t avoid the economic turmoil currently hitting the auto industry, and in a recent analysts call the CEO was forced to go back on his previous statement, saying “it would simply be crazy to invest in bringing Alfa back to a depressed U.S. market.” Instead he says the brand now plans to return in 2011, when the market has hopefully improved.
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With sales down dramatically and credit markets virtually frozen, many automakers are cutting back projects and selling off businessesin an attempt to survive until the economy rebounds. With even the world’s number one automaker Toyota feeling the pinch right now, convincing nervous American buyers to take a chance on an Italian brand last seen in 1995 could prove difficult. And while AmericanAlfisti are no doubt eager for their favorite automaker to return to the U.S. as soon as possible, they only have to wait a little bit longer — that is, as long as Fiat’s plans don’t change again.
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