“Maserati will be built at the Mirafiori-Grugliasco hub, including a new SUV and something else I won't tell you. In Melfi the 500X and the small Jeep, in Pomigliano the Panda and perhaps a second car. Cassino remains, which structurally and in terms of production capacity is the most suitable plant for the relaunch of Alfa Romeo". These are the prospects for the Italian factories of Fiat outlined by the CEO. of the Sergio Marchionne group in an interview with Repubblica.
The plan, after the Chrysler coup, mainly involves the relaunch of Alfa Romeo. A plan that over time – if the market doesn't collapse again – will “bring all the workers back to work. They will all return,” says Marchionne. "I commit myself: when the plan is fully operational, the Italian industrial network will be full, of course the market permitting".
The relaunch of Alfa Romeo, added the Italian-Canadian manager in the interview with director Ezio Mauro, "is central to our strategy: in ghost warehouses, camouflaged around Italy, teams of our men are preparing the new models of Alfa Romeo which we will announce in April and which will change the image of the brand, bringing it back to absolute excellence”.
“Our strategy – explains Marchionne – is to get out of the mass market, where customers are few, competitors are many, margins are low and the future is complicated”. In short, leaving the traditional Fiat market to go into the premium range. “Basically we have fantastic and by definition Premium brands such as Alfa Romeo and Maserati. Why not reinvent them?”.
In Marchionne's plans, therefore, Fiat will go to the top end of the mass market, with the Panda and Cinquecento families, and will leave the low and intermediate segment. Lancia, on the other hand, will become a brand only for the Italian market, in the Y line. And Chrysler will guarantee access to international markets: “Today, if I present Alfa in the USA, I have a network of 2.300 dealers capable of taking those cars anywhere in America , respecting its Italian DNA”.
