Today is Cinco de Mayo, a Mexican holiday used as an excuse by Americans to drink margaritas and eat bad Tex-Mex. But tomorrow, Fiat Chrysler will unveil their next five-year plan, which should clarify the many contradictory product plans being touted by both FCA execs and the media.
Among the areas expected to be clarified tomorrow:
- Which of the two minivans will survive FCA's nameplate consolidation. The smart money is on the Chrysler Town & Country, with the Grand Caravan's replacement taking the form of a three-row crossover
- Alfa Romeo's return to the United States beyond the low volume 4C sports car
- The future direction of the Chrysler and Dodge brands. FCA has been taking steps to eliminate overlap between the two brands (for example, redesigning the Chrysler 200 while axing its Dodge Avenger sister car), but both lack a strong identity. Chrysler is a mainstream pseudo-upscale brand, while Dodge is a mainstream pseudo-performance brand. Dodge's customer base skews much younger, but its raison d'etre is flimsy enough that there has been talk of axing it now that the high-performance SRT brand has been spun off of it.
- Jeep is making an aggressive push in world markets, with a view to doubling sales by 2018 to 1.5 million units.
- Ram trucks have been a major profit center for Chrysler, but the aluminum Ford F-150 will present a real challenge to Ram's new diesel half-ton truck.
- Hybrids and alternative powertrains are expected to be discussed. Although Jeep and Ram have a diesel powertrain through VM Motori (a Fiat owned company) and Ram has a long relationship with Cummins, FCA lacks any sort of hybrid technology, and is lagging in the Corporate Average Fuel Economy rankings. FCA is also reliant on Jeep and Ram for much of their financial success, putting them at a further disadvantage. The only announcement regarding hybrid cars was a brief one about a next-generation hybrid minivan sometime later in the decade.
We'll have full coverage of the event tomorrow.
from The Truth About Cars http://ift.tt/Jh8LjA
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