Sergio Marchionne is a man to be reckoned with. Before he was appointed as CEO of Fiat back in 2004, Fiat was a little bit lost. The Canadian-Italian ex-barrister (who was, at that time, on the Board of Directors) worked his magic and was instrumental in getting Fiat back from the ashes.
Marchionne runs both Chrysler and Fiat and, in the past at least, his often controversial and aggressive tactics have seemed to pay off.
Lately, however, there has been a bit of a storm in the Marchionne camp. Fiat just can’t break China. At all.
In an effort to repair the damage that has been caused by the distinct lack of sales, Marchionne is planning to produce the Jeep Cherokee over there. If current talks do indeed result in production of the prestigious SUV, it could hit showrooms in 2015.
The Fiat Viaggio Sedan is currently made at the same factory Marchionne is planning to assemble the Cherokee in; the simple fact is that as the sales of the Fiat Viaggio are forecast to be more than 60% down (according to estimates) this year, there is extra capacity that needs to be filled.
The main problem is this. China is a country that is on the up. Chinese people are not looking for Fiats. They are looking for cars that are a show of wealth; whilst Jeep may well fit into this category, Fiat (apparently) does not. Marchionne left it far too long to try and break China and now there is little place for it.
To make matters worse, sales are waning here in Europe for Fiat, too. Fiat have recently reported a $664 million loss in the first half of this year (excluding Chrysler).
It is a sad fact that if Fiat had thought more of the Asian market back when Sergio took over as CEO, they would probably be selling more than 4.1% of their 3.34 million cars there this September. After all, General Motors and Volkswagen AG are on track to sell 3 million cars in China alone this year.
Come on, Sergio, it’s time to pull some magic out of the hat. We love the Fiat brand and we want it to stay.
We know that you can do it – you’ve shown us before.
Written by @MotorMistress
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