AFSCME 3357-HOF'S BLOG

Details on Prospective ChrysFiatsco Models
US Plants will See no C-Evo Platform until 2012

IHS Global Insight has laid out a product/production timeline for post-Fiat aquisition Chysler models. If this information is accurate, prospects for robust US-based auto production don't look good through 2012 and counting. The first thing to point out is that it looks like Chrysler Group dealers will have no new sheet metal until Early 2011 at best. (The only possible exception that I see is the Jeep Grand Cherokee, a model that isn't mentioned at all in this report.)

The first new Fiat-based models will be Fiat Panda (to be branded a Jeep) and the Fiat 500 (to be branded a Fiat), and these models will be built in Toluca, Mexico beginning July, 2011. Chrysler expects these models to account for more than 50,000 units per year between them. A picture of the Fiat Panda is above right. I'm not sure Jeep loyalists will go for this.

Roughly the same time, production is to begin, also in Toluca, for the replacement for the current-generation Dodge Journey. More controversial, the current Dodge Avenger and Chrysler Sebring are currently built in the United States. The replacement for these cars will be built in Toluca starting July 2011.

If you are looking for new Chrysler product built in the United States, according to this plan, you'll be waiting at least three years. Global Insight lists three current Chrysler plants that will be retooled to build vehicles off of Fiat's new C-EVO platform. The C-EVO platform is currently being used for the stylish Alfa Romeo 149. See picture


Specifically, Belvidiere Illinois, Jefferson Avenue, and Toledo (North?). From this product plan, I could not see any potentially high-volume vehicles slated for assembly in the United States.

(Panda photo via fiat.com, alpha romeo 149 photo via Eurocarblog.com)