As the deal to sell Chrysler's assets to Fiat draws near, Fiat has amassed a team of executives and engineers at the American automaker's Auburn Hills headquarters to work on bringing future product - including the Fiat 500 - up to speed.
Fiat plans for the 500 to be the first new vehicle Chrysler will offer from its new Italian owner, with a planned released date at the end of next year. In order to accomplish that goal, Reuters says Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne is heading a group of Fiat executives and engineers in Auburn Hills that is working furiously to bring the 500 up to U.S. safety standards and regulations, citing unnamed sources.
In addition to readying the 500, the team is looking at each individual part of each new product being considered for Chrysler in order to discover where the two companies can realize cost savings on parts purchasing. This is a goal Marchionne has cited as being his main reason for taking over Chrysler, as well as Opel.
As Reuters points out, this might not work out as Marchionne planned, as Chrysler depends primarily on the U.S. market for sales. Ignoring the fact that the U.S. market has taken an unprecedented nosedive, Chrysler is suffering from a tarnished reputation due to bankruptcy and a backlash from accepting taxpayer funds to carry it through the end of 2008.
If all goes according to Marchionne's plan, however, the 500 will emerge in Chrysler's showrooms 18 months after the work on readying it for the U.S. market is finished, which would be the end of 2010. In the future, Chrysler will roll out vehicles based on Chrysler's small car platforms, though the timetable for those vehicles' releases are still fluid.
Source: Reuters