Marchionne's FCA Looks To Sell 6 Million Units

Cameron Aubernon
by Cameron Aubernon

Should Sergio Marchionne’s Fiat Chrysler Automobiles be able to deliver on his expectations, the merged automaker will be able to move 6 million units annually, enabling FCA to become a player on the global stage.

The Detroit News reports Marchionne met before Fiat’s shareholders in the final meeting at the automaker’s Turin, Italy headquarters before FCA relocates to the Netherlands, stating what he expects out of FCA in the post-merger years to come:

By 2018, Fiat will be able to make more than 6 million cars. I don’t want to give any details of the plan, but we are going in that direction.

For 2014, Marchionne stated FCA aims to sell between 4.5 million and 4.6 million units on the strength of United States and Asia markets, collecting some $128 billion in revenues, and between $828.6 million and $1.1 billion in net profit. The goal of selling 6 million units has been an oft-mentioned one by Marchionne, who believes that the volumes necessary to achieve scale will only increase in the future.

Until then, his current goal is to have Chrysler and Fiat completely merged by the end of 2014, with a multi-year business plan to be presented in Detroit by May. Marchionne believes the new plan can be run “by purely financing on debt.”

Cameron Aubernon
Cameron Aubernon

Seattle-based writer, blogger, and photographer for many a publication. Born in Louisville. Raised in Kansas. Where I lay my head is home.

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  • Olddavid Olddavid on Apr 02, 2014

    His avuncular, sweater wearing "aw shucks" act is wearing thin. Methinks bobman has hit the nail on the head.

  • Highdesertcat Highdesertcat on Apr 02, 2014

    Sergio has surprised lot of people AND the global auto industry. His Canadian-style of management is very different from that of his European, American and Asian counterparts. He is a credit to his adopted country. Too many experts have given Sergio up for dead or otherwise underestimated him, with the reversal of the Canadian plant expansion tax-break demands being but the latest. If I were a betting man, I believe Fiatsler shareholders can bank on Sergio, and make a lot of money in the process.

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    • Highdesertcat Highdesertcat on Apr 03, 2014

      RobertRyan, yes, the current WK2 Grand Cherokee shares many similarities with the Mercedes ML-series. I bought a 2012 for my wife in Nov 2011 and it has been a flawless ride for her, with only the occasional hiccup, like the TPMS or Check Engine light coming on. However, that said, I am loathe to recommend the 2014 Grand Cherokee these since all three of my wife's sisters traded their Highlanders for a 2014 Grand Cherokee in March or April of 2013 and have had nothing but problems with them. They were motivated enough by their bad ownership experience to write them up on blog.cars dot com/kicking tires under Grand Cherokee Recalls. So for me, we're going back to the tried and the true and will trade our Grand Cherokee for a 2015 or 2016 Sequoia, more than likely the final vehicle my wife will drive into retirement.

  • Gtrslngr Gtrslngr on Apr 02, 2014

    Ahhh .. the delusional dreams of Stronzetto [ look it up ] Marchionne . He never fails to surpass even his most ludicrous prognosticating despite the fact that Alfa Romeo / FIAT / Maserati / Ferrari ... and Dodge/Chrysler sales [ other than JEEPs and RAMs ] are in the toilet in the US - UK - EU - China - Russia and Brazil Ya gotta in a strange sense sort of love this guy . He never fails to out do himself when it comes to the negative . Stronzetto Marchionne and his ever present Madness . Always good for a bit of entertainment ... unless of course you work for FCA or god forbid have stock in the company that is

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    • Marcelo de Vasconcellos Marcelo de Vasconcellos on Apr 02, 2014

      @PenguinBoy They're also doing just fine in Brazil where they remain the leader and though they have fallen, along with the rest of the market, they've fallen less than the market as a whole, so they've gained. In China, they had zero sales a decade ago so wherever they are now is an improvement. Seems like in India they have managed to maintain a presence and with small CUVs being all the rage there and their smalls CUVs just being readied, they could be gaining fast. In North America you outlined the situation. Yes, in the dump they are.

  • Romismak Romismak on Apr 02, 2014

    Well last year they sold 4.43m i think, so where he wants those additional numbers to get, yes rebounding Europe - but Fiat is not such big player, today it´s medium player not big not small, in NAFTA region Chrysler is strong and will get bigger, but not by much, in Latin America Fiat is alredy loosing share to asian groups, in China new JV for Fiat brand and Jeep brand, yes big opportunity, but still i can´t see where they want those additional numbers to get. 2013 sales 4.42m EMEA-Europe, Turkey, Russia, Middle east and Africa 875thousand PC + 250thousand LCV´s - 1.125m - they can go up to 1.3m i think with rebounding Europe, still growing Africa and GCC countries, but for example Turkey where Fiat is huge they start loosing to rivals in future. NAFTA - 2.147m - Mexico in 2013 was down, in future Hyundai will sell their cars directly so those hyundai´s badged as Dodge you can write off, and also competition will be more brutal with everybody having plants there, so i can´t see big upside in MExico, in Canada Chrysler alredy is doing 40+ months streak in market that is growing by little and is at peak level, so they can´t get much in Canada with their big market share right now, so in MExico+Canada they can´t really gain much in US there is still potential so i say from 1.8m in 2013 to 2.2m in few years in new US peak level being optimistic so let´s say NAFTA +410Thousand Latin America - 933thousands - Argentina was huge last year now market problems and competition so let´s say Argentina peaked, Brazil, well FIAT is No.1 there and last year they lost to competition, they can grow with market in next years but still it won´t be easy with everybody trying to get peace of cake away from Fiat and VW, so let´say Brazil +200t, in rest of Latin America basically Dodge and Jeep brands are as strong if not bigger than FIAT don´t see potential there, let´s say Latin America +200thousand China-India if they can deliver here so good, but don´t see it, yes JV for FIAT and JEEP brands should do fine, but still with everybody being in China they can´t go to far in volume, let´say China +250 thousand with Jeep factory there and Fiat having more models Now i include Alfa and Maserati being more volume premium brands +150thousand That´s +1.2m if i am optimistic - together 4.42m +1.2m that´s over 5.6m and i can´t see them getting over it

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    • Marcelo de Vasconcellos Marcelo de Vasconcellos on Apr 03, 2014

      @Marcelo de Vasconcellos Hey romismak! It'll always be a pleasure to help you out and fill you in with any additional info you need. You'll get some info filtered by my perspective but that's only natural. I don't know if you've noticed, but I've written many an article on the Brazilian market for TTAC and you can get a feel for our market there. Anyways, send Derek an e-mail and I'm sure he'll forward it to me if you feel the need.

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