The Jeep and Chrysler brands plan to more than double sales by 2018 while Dodge will stop making the Grand Caravan minivan, Fiat Chrysler Automobile executives said.
The plans are part of an EUR55bn spend and product plan out to 2018 announced by Fiat Chrysler CEO Sergio to investors on Tuesday (6 May).
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Bloomberg News said Alfa Romeo gets EUR5bn to launch eight new vehicles and increase deliveries more than five times with new rear wheel drive and four wheel drive vehicles, and a sales target of 400,000 in 2018 versus 74,000 in 2013.
The brand will continue to build all its models in Italy and start the product offensive at the end of 2015 with a new mid-size car, axing the current Mito in the process.
Jeep is on track to reach 1m sales this year, Mike Manley, Jeep CEO, said, according to Bloomberg News. The brand is made only in several US factories at present but, by 2018, the automaker plans 10 plants in six countries and a dealer count of 6,023 versus 4,706 now with Asian shops more than tripling to 1,270. Sales in Latin America – a Q1 profit disaster for the automaker – should increase 50% annually to 2018, the company said.
Chrysler, positioned as a mainstream, non-premium brand, plans to more than double sales to 800,000 in 2018, the company said, according to Bloomberg.
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By GlobalDataA new compact 100 model will be introduced in 2016 and the brand will add two plug-in electric vehicles – including a minivan – by 2017.
The full size 300 sedan will be refreshed this year and replaced in 2018 and a mid-size crossover-utility vehicle will arrive in 2018.
Production of the Dodge Grand Caravan will end in 2016 so the more upmarket Chrysler Town & Country minivan will no longer face competition in dealerships that carry both brands, Chrysler said. Sales of the Chrysler version rose 9.4% last year to 122,288 while deliveries of the lower-priced Dodge slid 12% to 124,019.
The minivan line – pioneered in the US by Chrysler in 1983 – will be redesigned in 2016, including the plug-in hybrid version and the brand will add an SUV in 2017, also with a plug-in hybrid variant.
SRT models are now consolidated under Dodge.
According to Bloomberg News, Fiat brand sales are forecast to increase 27% to 1.9m in 2018 from 1.5m in 2013. In Europe, Fiat will add eight models to maintain sales at 700,000, the company said. The brand’s sales are seen rising by 2018 to 100,000 in North America and 300,000 in Asia. Fiat will add a 500X small SUV in North America in 2015, the company said.
Maserati will more than quadruple annual deliveries by 2018 to 75,000 and expand its model offerings to six, including adding the Alfieri sports car, shown last March in Geneva, Bloomberg said. The brand aims to more than triple revenue in the next five years to more than EUR6bn after a EUR2b growth investment.
Marchionne wants to make Fiat big enough to challenge GM, Volkswagen and Toyota, Bloomberg noted. VW is targeting sales of more than 10m vehicles in 2014 while Toyota forecast 10.32m.
Reaching 7m should move Fiat Chrysler up at least one rung on the global sales rankings, Marchionne said.
“The problem is powerpoint presentations are a lot easier than real life,” Harald Hendrikse, a London-based analyst with Nomura Holdings, told Bloomberg.
“These brands need a huge amount of work to get where they need to be. The world changes very slowly and you have brands at the bottom of the pile in many regions. It’s not going to happen overnight.”
Bloomberg said Marchionne had fallen short on some Fiat and Chrysler volume targets but stuck to strategic actions as outlined so investors and other stakeholders such as dealers and union leaders pay close attention to his capital and product plans.
He also said he would run Fiat and Chrysler until the end of the plan in 2018, two years longer than he said he would stay in January.
The carmaker said it was keeping open its financing options while ruling out a capital increase before 2018.
Marchionne also ruled out the sale of any unit.
