Former Fiat marketing chief Laura Soave with the 500C during its New York Auto Show launch in April.
Automotive veteran Laura Soave has been forced out of her post as head of Fiat in the U.S. as the Chrysler Group LLC shook up the marketing effort behind the tiny Fiat 500 which has been suffering from sluggish sales since its public launch late last year.
Timothy Kuniskis, a veteran Chrysler Group marketing executive, was named to head of the Fiat Brand for North America, replacing Soave, who led the return of the Fiat brand for nearly two years. Soave, a veteran of top marketing jobs at both Volkswagen and GM “left the company to pursue other interests,” Chrysler said in a statement.
In his new role, Kuniskis, will serve as Director for both the Chrysler Brand and Fiat Brand Product Marketing. That includes managing Fiat Brand sales, marketing, dealer network and service.
“Tim brings broad expertise and leadership in dealer operations and marketing where he has been already working with the team to shape the direction of the Fiat Brand,” said Sergio Marchionne, Chairman and CEO, Chrysler Group LLC, who personally made the announcement of the change in management.
Chrysler vet Tim Kuniskis will assume Fiat management duties.
“As North American Head of Fiat, much of his immediate focus will be working with the dealer body where his fresh perspective from the operational side, as well as that on the commercial side, will begin the Fiat Brand’s next chapter,” Marchionne said.
The Italian executive said Kuniskis will continue with the reintroduction of the iconic brand including its newest vehicle the 2012 Fiat 500 Abarth – which was introduced last week during the L.A. Auto Show’s media preview.
Chrysler Group had originally hoped to sell as many as 50,000 of the Mexican-made Fiat 500s in North America annually. So far the sales have barely topped 16,000 and were less than 2,000 in October.
“Fiat brand is entering a new chapter and it has been deemed appropriate to entrust Tim with the responsibility for the marque in North America,” said Gualberto Ranieri, Head of Communications and Chrysler Group LLC, noting the dealer network had taken longer to develop than planned.
Fiat now has its full complement of dealers, 130, while the awareness of the Fiat brand also has been growing, he said.
The maker had initially tried to downplay the shortfall in Fiat 500 sales, insisting it was largely the result of not having enough dealers in place.
Kuniskis joined Chrysler in 1992 and since then has held a series of increasingly high-level positions in the company’s business center operations and marketing organization.
Industry analysts have been questioning the viability of Fiat’s return to the U.S. The maker has required dealers to set up standalone showrooms for the brand, rather than sharing their facilities with other Chrysler marque. That might have been more viable had Fiat also moved ahead with plans to re-launch the Alfa Romeo brand in the U.S., but that has been pushed back several years by Marchionne due to his concerns about having the right products in place for the American market.
“Laura Soave have been forced out…”
“Timothy Kuniskis, a veteran Chrysler Group marketing executive, was named…”
If it is a marketing problem, ousting a marketing manager and naming another marketing manager sounds the right move.
If the problem is “strictly mechanical”, this move is not going to make sales better.
The Fiat 500 TwinAir (voted as the greenest and the best engine of the year 2011 at engine-expo, Stuttgart Germany) is supposed to be the top fuel-efficient car in the market.
It is not.
Fiat did invented the MultiAir technology (turning the engine into a digital device), but then Fiat applied this technology the wrong way on the Fiat and Alfa Romeo cars.
By applying the MulriAir technology the “opposite” way, Fiat can make their cars greener than anything (the hybrid cars included).
One way to make it, is the PatAir “reverse MultiAir” at http://www.pattakon.com/pattakonHydro.htm
Another way is the more unconventional HyDesmo (a Hydraulic Desmodromic “MultiAir”) at http://www.pattakon.com/pattakonHyDesmo.htm
Thanks
Manousos Pattakos
I’m not quite sure how you come to the conclusion that Multiair is applied the wrong way to Fiat and Alfa. First off the TwinAir is based on a 2 cylinder engine with Multiair. It does get excellent fuel economy in Europe. But remember fuel economy is also based on driver habit. I will check out the web sight you bring up. But in reality that is not the reason that the Fiat 500 has not been the sales success in the US. 1st off Marchione put an unrealistic sales expectation for the 500 in it’s 1st yr.To expect 50,000 in sales when Mini(with 4 X as many models as Fiat)sold just 33,000 thru October of this yr.Also there is a lot of competition in the A class market in the US now.The question is how do you separate the 500 from the competition. It’s not going to be just on fuel economy. Smart made an even worst mistake by marketing a 2 seater primarily on fuel economy. It has faired far worse.Why? Well a 2 seat car has a limited following and usually it’s “sportscar”. The Fiat has 4 seats. It has slightly better interior and luggage room then a Mini Cooper. It gets slightly better gas mileage and has a better day to day ride. The Mini is simply been marketed better then the Fiat.Fiat has to figure out what makes it different or stand out from Fiesta,Smart, Mini,Sonic,Accent, Veloster etc.Obviously size and interior room are not it’s attributes. Using J-Lo only was emphasizing it’s a “Chicks” car. Women are more prone to drive a “man’s car then Vice-a-versa. Fiat has to move away from the “Girlymans” stigma. Hopefully the Abarth might help with proper marketing.I think emphsizing that “Sports Car” that’s a hatchback approach might work better.
The TwinAir / MultiAir / UniAir system of Fiat / Schaeffler-INA is way ahead of its competitors VVAs like the valvetronic of BMW, the valvematic of Toyota, the VVEL of Nissan-Infinity etc.
This is so because the electro-hydraulic system of Fiat is essentially “digital”.
The MultiAir VVA system is not based, any longer, on an extreme construction accuracy of the hardware. The ECU, based on the feedback, controls independently the operation of each cylinder by just aligning the opening and closing times of the solenoid valves.
But its potential is still not fully exploited:
The Fiat 500 TwinAir is the most fuel-efficient gasoline car in the official combined cycle.
However, conventional cars of similar size (like the VW-Polo 1.2 Tsi), theoretically not as fuel-efficient as the TwinAir, achieve a better real-life mileage during comparative road tests made by different journalists.
The same is true for the MultiAir models of Fiat / Alfa Romeo: In conditions quite different than those met in the official cycle, their fuel efficiency is poor.
The PatAir at http://www.pattakon.com/pattakonHydro.htm provides an infinity of additional modes / strategies that exploit the real potential of the MultiAir system.
In order to upgrade an existing MultiAir / TwinAir engine up to a PatAir engine, all it takes is a different intake camlobe profile and a reprogramming of the “electronic control unit”/ECU. Then the engine operates either according the original MultiAir “Outgoing Air Control” modes/strategies of Fiat, or according the PatAir “Outgoing Air Control” modes/strategies, whichever is the most efficient for the specific operational conditions.
(The Toyota Prius engine operates in a limited “Outgoing Air Control” cycle: Atkinson/Miller cycle, overexpansion).
Since neither the long duration intake camlobes of the PatAir adds any cost, at all, nor the ECU reprogramming adds any cost, at all, to double the available modes of the MultiAir / TwinAir of Fiat has no manufacturing cost, at all.
The HyDesmo at http://www.pattakon.com/pattakonHyDesmo.htm is more extreme: it needs not valve springs to restore the valves; the valves open and close positively.
Fiat can keep blaming and ousting its market managers or think technically and reap more technical advantages from its MultiAir/TwinAir tech, the greenest tech today.
Thanks
Manousos Pattakos