Farewell, Fiat: Stellantis Will Tap France for Small Car Platforms
Hopefully you’re all familiar with Stellantis — the chosen name for the sprawling automaker birthed from the merger of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and France’s PSA Group. With the merger expected to wrap up in the first quarter of 2021, Stellantis is all about capitalizing on the respective partners’ strengths in the name of efficiency.
And, because of this strategy, FCA has reportedly issued a stop-work order on any development of future small or subcompact cars. The future of FCA small cars is now French.
According to Automotive News, a late-July letter to FCA suppliers stated that all of its future small cars will drop Fiat underpinnings in favor of platforms found beneath Peugeots and the newly French-owned Opel and Vauxhall brands. This comes after March’s order to suspend the development of five vehicles (grouped under the Fiat, Alfa Romeo, Lancia, and Jeep brands) as a consequence of the ongoing pandemic.
Instead of updated Fiat architecture, the future FCA brand small cars will carry a platform utilized by the likes of the Peugeot 208. PSA’s Common Modular Platform (CMP) also sets up shop in the Opel Corsa and DS3 Crossback, among others. Fitting for Europe, CMP, which offers two track widths and three wheelbases, allows the automaker to field gasoline- and electric-driven examples of the same cars.
From Automotive News:
In its note to suppliers, FCA said it will build CMP-based small cars in its plant in Tychy, Poland. The factory currently makes the Fiat 500 and Lancia Ypsilon. Italian press reports suggest FCA will build up to 400,000 units a year of CMP-based models in Tychy.
Clearly, this news doesn’t impact the American automotive landscape all that much. On this side of the Atlantic, small FCA cars barely exist, found only in the nearly dead Fiat brand. The Jeep Renegade continues on its Fiat underpinnings, though any future generation would likely swap to PSA architecture.
[Image: PSA Group]
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Heaven is where the police are British, the cooks are French, the mechanics German, the lovers Italian and it's all organized by the Swiss. Hell is where the chefs are British, the mechanics French, the lovers Swiss, the police German, and it's all organized by the Italians.
This will drastically reduce the choice of unique vehicle designs for European market. Fiat and Opel small car platforms were very popular, as much as Peugeot 2-series.