The actual merger took place only on October 12 of that year, but the epic of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles it began exactly six years ago, on New Year's Day 2014, when the start of operations was announced aimed at the acquisition, by Fiat, of the entire share package of the US company Chrysler Group. Following this, on the 29th of the same month, the board of directors of the Italian group, which met at the Lingotto under the chairmanship of Sergio Marchionne, the great director of the operation, approved the corporate reorganization to create a new and unique industrial group called Fiat Chrysler Automobiles.
The new company, with registered office in the Netherlands (and tax domicile in London), debuted on the Stock Exchange - in New York and Milan - on 13 October 2014, but well before that the foundations were laid for what then became the eighth automotive group in the world. world by number of vehicles produced. A monstrous operation, which relaunched the Turin company by bringing the Fiat, Alfa Romeo, Lancia, Maserati, Fiat Professional, Abarth, Jeep, Chrysler, Dodge, Ram Trucks, Mopar, SRT brands under one roof. Yet, an operation that is already part of prehistory, given that after Marchionne's death, in July 2018, FCA did not stop and has recently closed the agreement with the French PSA Peugeot for a equal merger: now there are the foundations to give life to the fourth world group for cars produced, and third for turnover.
However, the young life of the Italian-American group, soon to become French too, was not made up only of successes. In 2017, the Dieselgate affair should be remembered, which first overwhelmed Volkswagen but then also FCA, investigated by the United States Department of Justice due to the alleged failure to disclose software that violated emissions standards and allowed vehicles to exceed pollution limits. On May 23, 2017, the Justice Department filed a civil lawsuit alleging that FCA "used a 'malfunction device' to circumvent emissions controls" in more than 100.000 vehicles between 2014 and 2016. In January 2019 Fiat Chrysler agrees to pay $800 million to solve diesel emission causes.
This year, however, the flop of the negotiation with Renault: on May 27, the company now led by Mike Manley, with John Elkann as president, receives a proposal for a 50% merger, with equal governance, but the operation stalls because the transalpine government is not convinced (the French state is the largest shareholder of Renault with 15% equal to the Japanese of Nissan). The attempt with another French group will go better a few months later. In 2018, FCA had a turnover of 110,4 billion euros, and had nearly 200.000 employees worldwide.
