Fiat Group and Auto CEO Sergio Marchionne has
given an fascinating, brief insight into the
future of Fiat Auto's three specialist brands -
Alfa Romeo, Lancia and Maserati - during an
interview with Luca Ciferri published in
Automotive News Europe today. During the
interview Marchionne discusses the recent senior
management changes he made at Alfa Romeo, the
underlying strength of the Lancia brand and its
optimistic future, and the problems facing
Maserati's long-term quest to reach an annual
production target of 10,000 units.
Luca Ciferri firstly suggests to Marchionne that
he has lost confidence in Alfa Romeo and asks
what are Alfa's problems and the possible
solutions? "The
Alfa issue is complicated and simple at the same
time," Marchionne replies, "Alfa is a great,
world-renowned brand, but it is selling fewer
cars than planned. To address the problem, we
recently announced a change of leadership.
Dampening speculation that Karl Heinz Kalbfell
is set to leave the company after loosing
overall control of the Alfa Romeo portfolio,
Marchionne states that the former BMW and
Rolls-Royce executive "will concentrate on
Maserati and on the future strategic development
of the industrial and commercial alliance
between Alfa Romeo and Maserati, the
now-designated "polo sportivo" of Fiat group."
Meanwhile Marchionne adds that "Antonio Baravalle, who has done a great job at Lancia,
will take over the day-to-day running of Alfa
with his great commercial and marketing
(ability)."
"For many
years, neither the Fiat Group nor Fiat Auto CEOs
believed Lancia had a strong future," questions
Ciferri, switching his attention to Fiat's
domestic-focused 'luxury' brand, "But you have
approved three additional new models for Lancia.
What has driven you to bet on an almost domestic
brand in an increasingly global industry?"
Marchionne's response is to
affirm his well known positive view of the
specialist, historic brand:
"Lancia is a unique brand, truly Italian,
stylish, a bit arrogant. It has a great past, it
will be 100 years old next year, and no heavy
legacy to deal with. Consequently, it is a
perfect base for a new growth period."
He added:
"I agree that in terms of sales, Lancia is
currently too Italian, but, step by step, this
will change. We aggressively attacked the French
market this year and in 2006 we will approach
Germany and Spain. In term of investments, it is
a sustainable bet because Lancia's investments
are incremental to the new models we are
developing for the Fiat brand.
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Adding some fact to the wild speculation which is
currently raging around the engineering platform
direction the next-generation Coupé and Spyder
models will take, Marchionne states in the ANE
interview that "The Quattroporte platform also will
be the basis of a new,
top of the range coupe" |
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Fiat Group and
Auto CEO Sergio Marchionne
has given an fascinating insight into the future of Fiat
Auto's three specialist brands - Alfa Romeo, Lancia and Maserati -
during an interview with Luca Ciferri for Automotive News Europe |
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Another area of on-going speculation is right hand drive
production, with Marchionne stating that "we are currently
working to add right-hand drive versions to the next Lancias,"
adding that it would cost in the region of what he regarded
as a "reasonable" 5.6 million euros to engineer a platform
to this format, expected to start with the new Delta,
scheduled to arrive in 2008. Right hand drive production
would offer Lancia the option of returning to markets it
abandoned fifteen years ago, including the UK, Republic of
Ireland, Australia and New Zealand, while allowing it to
target the new high-growth Eastern markets, such as India
and Thailand, as well as Japan.
Switching
focus
to
the
third
of
the
Fiat
Auto
brands,
Maserati,
Ciferri
states
that:
"Maserati had been the most over-promised and
under-delivered champion within the Fiat group. Every five
years, the ten thousand units a year target is postponed for
another five years. The latest target is now 2010. How will
Maserati get there?"
"First, by strengthening its current product range, the
Maserati Quattroporte is an excellent car, but it needs to
be produced, for example, with a true automatic gearbox for
the US market," says Marchionne, acknowledging a plea - that
has come from its North American Dealer Network in
particular - for a fully automatic version of the
super-luxury saloon. Adding some facts to the wild
speculation which is currently raging around the engineering
platform direction the next-generation Coupé and Spyder
models will take, Marchionne says that "The Quattroporte
platform also will be the basis of a new, top of the range
Coupé." Immediately he also put the Alfa-Maserati
co-operation firmly into the spotlight by suggesting that -
in his view - the Trident brand needs to make full use of
the "Premium" platform (which underpins the new Alfa 159, Brera and forthcoming Spider models). "At the same time,
Maserati is too small to have its own platforms so it needs
synergies with other brands. I think the industrial
cooperation with Alfa Romeo on the premium platform is the
proper answer," Marchionne concluded the Automotive News
Europe interview - published today - by suggesting that
Alfa Romeo and Maserati "could" also work together on a new
large 'crossover' type vehicle and that Alfa might consider
building a small sportscar.
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