Renzi, the agreement (not to be made) with Psa, the car without a driver and the market trend: it is a Sergio Marchionne the one who intervened from Chicago was all-round, where he participated in an event organized by the ICE-Agency and focused on the opportunities in the USA for Italian exporters of manufactured products. “Considering the international scene, an alliance with PSA is not something to do – said the CEO of FCA -: although there is a certain advantage in an association with PSA, that advantage is too low. Choosing PSA would limit all possible moves by FCA”.
Marchionne from Illinois also reiterated his support for the Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, who also attended the event on the occasion of his American tour, which will lead him today to speak at Harvard and tomorrow to visit Obama in Washington: “He spoke here of stability – observed Marchionne – and the political stability of Country is important. Over 60 prime ministers in 70 years is inconceivable. Renzi I would vote for him ”.
The FCA number one then took stock of the market, guaranteeing that “within five years there will be cars that in some circumstances will drive themselves, with the driver inside who will have the possibility to take control of the car itself". This is why the company born from the merger between Lingotto and the former Chrysler holds "parallel conversations with several agents who are now outside the car system". This is the case, for example, of Google, Apple and groups "that are playing a rather important role in the reformulation of what the car industry could have been". Marchionne guaranteed: “We have never made and will never make a choice that would limit FCA's ability to participate in opportunities related to self-driving cars. But this is not our job, we need to understand it clearly”.
At Fiat Chrysler Automobiles "we continue to do well", continued the CEO: "Melfi is going well, it works 24 hours a day: we have no bad news to give". At least on the internal market, given that Latin America "continues to be a problem for us as for everyone and that in Brazil the political situation needs to be clarified". The reference is to the pressures that have been mounting for some time for the president Dilma Rousseff resign given that she was overwhelmed by an impeachment procedure, by the corruption scandal of the Petrobras state oil company and by the criticisms for having at least temporarily saved her predecessor Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva with the appointment as Chief of Cabinet. In Brazil, "after that clarification I think things will start again but until we get to that moment of political stability we won't be able to talk about a good future". In Buenos Aires, on the other hand, "enormous progress has been made". Marchionne praised Argentine president Mauricio Macri, whom he will see next week: "He has re-established international credibility" for the nation. But for the car market, Argentina "has too little weight to replace or counterbalance Brazil".
As for the goals, that of FCA “It is to sell a fifth of the SUV market in Europe with Jeep. It's a huge number, we're a long way from that goal but we've reached levels pretty close to a fifth here in North America”. “After years of sacrifices, we are finally entering a moment of development of the product range especially of Fiat and obviously of Alfa moving forward. I am happy with what we have managed to do and I believe that Italy and Europe will benefit from it”. According to Marchionne, "from my point of view, the Geneva Motor Show was the most significant in terms of product offering for both Fiat, Alfa, Maserati, Ferrari and all the other products we had at the Motor Show".
