Later, rather than sooner, for Alfa in the U.S.
Sergio Marchionne, the chief executive officer of Fiat and Chrysler, said one of Fiat’s key reasons for teaming up with the ailing Chrysler Group LLC was to allow the Italian automaker to return to the U.S. market after decades of absence.
“You’ll start to see the first Fiat cars in the United States late this year, Marchionne told the Automotive News World Congress, which is held this week in Detroit immediately after the North American International Auto Show.
However, when a member of the audience asked him about the long-rumored return of Alfa Romeo brand to the US, Marchionne indicated he was not in all that much of a hurry.
“I’ve told them they have to earn it,” said Marchionne.
Marchionne said Alfa has to be successful in its primary markets in Europe before it can begin dreaming about selling cars once again in the U.S.
In the interim, Marchionne is focused on the Chrysler business.
“There are those who say transatlantic alliances are bound to fail. That Chrysler cannot Americanize Fiat and Fiat cannot succeed as a schoolmaster in Detroit,” Marchionne said.
“But this relations is about partnership not patronizing,” he said. It’s about listening not dictating,” he said.
“Not only Fiat-Chrysler’s future but our entire industry’s challenge depends – demands an ethic of humility and patience of learning and listening,” Marchionne said.
“It requires each partner to put national pride aside and seek to gain a deeper understanding of culture, tastes and expectations,” he said.
“It’s been said that Fiat is supposed to save Chrysler. But that fundamentally mistakes the purpose of our alliance, which is that these companies offer unique benefits to each other and that together we can achieve possibilities that would elude either of us alone.”
“Many new Chrysler cars will soon be built on Fiat platforms,” he said. “Most important, we are combining economies of scale that will generate substantially benefits both of us,” he said.
Another issue also followed him to Detroit from Italy. Marchionne has been very blunt about the need for European carmakers to shut some plants and reduce overcapacity.
One of the reasons, Fiat made a bid for Opel last year was because of the opportunities for “rationalization,” he said.
Fiat has also announced plans to close a plant in Sicily, which Marchionne said has lost money for years. But his stand has made him a target for protesters and one penetrated the usually staid Automotive News gathering, shouting “Shame, Shame” at Marchionne for eliminating jobs. Marchionne later said that the decision on Sicily was final.