Tag Archives: FCA

NHTSA Investigating Ram’s Diesel Pickups

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Ram

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The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has opened an investigation into nearly 605,000 heavy-duty Ram trucks. A report from the regulator’s Office of Defects Investigation has tabulated 22 complaints from the 2019 and 2020 model years, all of which use 6.7-liter Cummins turbo diesel engines, spurring the NHTSA to launch a formal investigation. Complaints revolve around loss of motive power, with most incidents occurring above 25 mph and resulting in the “permanent disablement of the vehicle.”

While the public was not made aware of the investigation until Monday, the agency launched its probe last Thursday on October 14th. The goal will be to establish how widespread the presumed defect is, what exactly caused it, and any potential safety hazards relating to the issue. Some headway has already been made, however. 

Back in 2019, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (now Stellantis) issued Warranty Bulletin D-19-02 to dealers. The memo requested stores participate in a campaign to “collect, monitor and correct quality issues” on certain MY 2018-2020 Ram trucks equipped with the 6.7-liter Cummins. The NHTSA’s action summary states that this resulted in FCA and an unnamed supplier collecting and inspecting high-pressure fuel pumps.

Vehicles under suspicion include all Ram 2500, 3500, 4500, and 5500 HD pickups from the 2019-2020 MY. The NHTSA plans on looking into the trucks to determine whether or not it needs to press Stellantis to launch a recall. That means asking the manufacturer to give its take on the situation while it compiles warranty claims, injury reports, and whatever FCA previously had on those suspect fuel pumps.

Regulators have been incredibly hard on diesel vehicles ever since Volkswagen’s emissions scandal upended the industry in 2015. While a part of me wants to believe the NHTSA just has it out for Ram’s HD lineup (since a few have asked), it seems far more plausible that this was a standard, shrug-your-shoulders defect. Selective environmental regulations have made diesels cost more as they’ve gradually amassed a bevy of pollutant controlling hardware while also complicating powertrains to a point that has lessened their overall effectiveness. But the impact this has had on their reliability is less obvious and may have nothing to do with a bunch of subpar fuel pumps.

Let’s face it, U.S. regulators haven’t been shy about hitting manufacturers with emissions-focused recalls backed by the Environmental Protection Agency and/or California Air Resources Board in the past. If they wanted to chide Cummins or FCA/Stellantis over pollution, they could have done so overtly.

Stellantis has said it plans on cooperating with the NHTSA fully, launching an investigation of its own for good measure. So we should have some answers soon, including the name of the supplier. In the meantime, you might want to keep a closer eye on how your HD Ram is running if it falls under the purview of the investigation.

[Image: Stellantis]

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Stellantis Enjoys Warm Welcome from European Investors

Stellantis Chairman John Elkann is meeting with the media tomorrow to talk about the company’s future.

Not every merger involving an automaker these days involves a blank-check company. The newly minted tie-up between Fiat Chrysler Automobiles N.V. and Peugeot S.A. was finalized over the weekend and the resulting company, Stellantis N.V., is enjoying a warm welcome.

At least on the stock market.

The new company’s stock trades on three exchanges and it finished the day on the Paris exchange up nearly 7%, closing at €13.14. It also jumped up 7.7% on the Milan exchange.

The New York Stock Exchange, the third exchange it’s traded on, was not open today due to the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.

(Chrysler is no more as Stellantis comes to life.)

CEO Carlos Tavares has a lot on his corporate plate now that the merger is complete.

The $52 billion merger of near equals creates a massive enterprise with operations on six continents, employs about 400,000 people, sells – at least for the time being – 14 vehicle brands and sells 8.1 million vehicles annually, making it the fourth-largest automaker in the world behind Volkswagen, Toyota and the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance.

With all of those possibilities, it’s going to take a press conference Tuesday to start revealing what Stellantis will look like now that’s it’s a living, breathing entity. What brands will stay? How many workers will keep their jobs?

People are nervous because the CEO of the new enterprise, Carlos Tavares, has a history of being fearless when it comes to eliminating unprofitable operations and processes in the pursuit of corporate profit. One need only look at how what he did with former General Motors’ subsidiary Opel. A money-loser for a decade, he had it in the black in one year.

(FCA CEO Manley gets new assignment following Stellantis merger.)

“Stellantis faces a mixed outlook as U.S. stimulus plans may buoy Chrysler vs. a more uncertain outlook for Peugeot in Europe,” Michael Dean, BI automotive analyst told Bloomberg. “Former PSA CEO Carlos Tavares takes the helm and, similar to his handling of PSA’s takeover of Opel in 2017, we anticipate a new strategy in the first 100 days of his stewardship. All regions face a difficult 1H amid continued lockdowns.”

Quirky name aside, investors gave Stellantis a warm welcome when it began trading Monday.

The two companies have worked to allay fears of major cutbacks in France and Italy. While top managers have outlined plans to trim costs by $6 billion following the merger, they insist they will be able to do that without closing any plants. They have outlined 40% of those cost savings coming from purchasing, 40% from combining product development efforts, and 20% from marketing and other operations.

However, it’s unclear how Tavares plans to tackle other issues such as improving the company’s performance in China, the world’s largest automotive market, and bolstering its electrification efforts, especially in the aforementioned China as well as in the U.S. Just addressing those two issues are likely to require billions of dollars and euros. Some of plans for these things and more may get touched on Tuesday, Marco Santino, a partner at consulting firm Oliver Wyman, told Reuters.

(Fiat Chrysler and PSA not exactly a “merger of equals.”)

“He has proven to be the kind of person who prefers action to words, so I don’t think he will make loud statements or try to over-sell targets,” he said.


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FCA-PSA Set to Kick Off New Year With Completion of Merger

Fiat Chrysler and PSA shareholders are expected to approve the merger of the two companies forming Stellantis, the world’s fourth-largest automaker.

This story has been updated to reflect the merger’s approval in separate votes by Fiat Chrysler and PSA investors.

The deal is done; shareholders at both PSA Group and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles now have voted to approve a merger creating the world’s fourth-largest automaker by sales volume, Stellantis.

Shareholders overwhelming approved the deal that was first announced in late 2019 — but only received final regulatory approval late last year. The $58 billion deal won an “Aye” vote from 99.15% of FCA shareholders, while 99.85% of PSA investors approved of the deal during an online meeting. Following the vote, the two companies said the merger process is expected to be completed by January 16.

Officials with the two companies have promised that the merger will yield a significantly stronger automaker, helping drive down manufacturing costs while also making it easier to prepare for the many changes set to sweep through the auto industry in the coming decade, notably the shift to electrified and autonomous vehicles. But the merger also raises numerous questions, starting with the broad range of brands each of the new partners bring to Stellantis. There has been widespread speculation that the new company could eliminate some of the weaker marques, including FCA’s namesakes, Fiat and Chrysler.

(FCA CEO Manley won’t be on the board after merger with PSA is completed.)

Carlos Tavares, PSA (left) and Mike Manley, FCA, shake hands following the signing of the merger agreement between the two companies in 2019.

“Stellantis will be a sort of conglomerate of brands, some great and some not so good and most very regional,” wrote Jefferies analyst Philippe Houchois. “The merger will be a good opportunity for a reset.”

The auto industry has been facing enormous pressures in recent years and FCA’s former CEO, the late Sergio Marchionne, began looking for an additional alliance partner even before completing the merger that formed Fiat Chrysler Automobiles a decade ago. During his tenure the plan was rebuffed by some of the industry’s giants, including Volkswagen and General Motors. It was Marchionne’s successor, Mike Manley, who took things a step further.

Manley came within hours of completing a merger with the largest French automaker, Renault, but the deal unraveled just before it was set to be announced. Months later, FCA made the surprise announcement that it was talking with PSA, parent of brands including Peugeot, Citroen, Opel and Vauxhall.

A formal plan was announced in December 2019 but it faced a variety of challenges, including issues raised by the coronavirus pandemic. Nonetheless, the process moved forward, the proposed partners clearing the last regulatory hurdles as 2020 drew to a close.

Under the agreement, FCA’s Chairman John Elkann – heir to Fiat’s founding Agnelli family – will retain that title at Stellantis. So too will Carlos Tavares, the highly regarded CEO who has been credited with turning around the French company since joining it six years ago, keep his role. Significantly, PSA was able to put the Opel/Vauxhall unit into the black

FCA CEO Mike Manley will not retain a seat on the board of directors after the merger.

within a year after acquiring the German-based operation from General Motors. Under GM, Opel had been in the red for nearly two decades.

(FCA, PSA pick name for post-merger company: Stellantis.)

Nonetheless, PSA has plenty of challenges of its own. Among other things, it is trying to find the formula for returning to the critical U.S. market it left nearly three decades ago.

As Stellantis, the new enterprise will need to move quickly to catch up with key competitors racing to bring electric vehicles to market. These include not only established manufacturers such as VW and GM but new entrants like Tesla and Lucid.

The partners set some tough goals going into the final phase of the merger. Early on, officials estimated they could squeeze out savings of 3.7 billion euros, or $4.5 billion, through various efficiencies. They later upped that to 5 billion euros, or about $6.1 billion. But the pandemic has made the business of forecasting, whether unit sales, revenues or earnings, exceedingly difficult. And the expectation of analysts, such as IHS Markit, is that it will take to nearly mid-decade before global sales come close to pre-pandemic levels.

The industry has been seeing an acceleration of mergers, acquisitions and less overarching joint ventures and alliances in recent years. But FCA provides a textbook example of how they don’t always pan out. The U.S. side, Chrysler entered into a supposed “merger of equals” in 1998 but, a decade later, found itself discarded by the German side of DaimlerChrysler AG. It would have been allowed to go bankrupt by the Obama administration in 2009 were it not for Fiat pulling together a rescue plan.

Fiat Chairman John Elkann will retain the same role in a merged company.

Then, under CEO Marchionne, FCA spent years chasing an even bigger alliance.

Curiously, the company that originally defined the concept of “bigger-is-better” reversed course following its own brush with Chapter 11. GM not only sold off the endlessly struggling Opel unit but also pulled out of an assortment of once important markets, including Australia, Russia and South Africa. After the formation of Stellantis, GM will slide back one spot and become only the world’s fifth-largest automotive manufacturer.

(FCA, PSA formally lock merger into place.)

“The auto industry has been chasing size and consolidation for years, but it’s been slower in coming than many would like to see,” Jefferies analyst Philippe Houchois told investors. “The question is whether GM, Toyota and Renault-Nissan have provided evidence that there may be limits to this strategy.”

GM Pushes for Round Two in Legal Battle with Fiat Chrysler

GM asked a federal judge to reinstate its lawsuit against rival Fiat Chrysler.

General Motors Co. has asked the federal judge that dismissed its lawsuit against Fiat Chrysler Automobiles N.V. to reinstate the lawsuit, claiming it has new evidence.

The automaker asked Judge Paul Borman to reconsider his earlier judgement on the alleged racketeering charges GM levied at Fiat Chrysler. Borman initially characterized the case as a “waste of time,” but allowed it to proceed.

“These new facts warrant amending the court’s prior judgment, so we are respectfully asking the court to reinstate the case,” GM said in a statement. GM asked for $1 billion in damages in the initial lawsuit.

(GM lawsuit against FCA tossed out by judge.)

Fiat Chrysler has maintained that GM’s lawsuit is without merit.

The company said it’s come across “reliable information concerning the existence of foreign bank accounts” used in the alleged scheme, GM attorneys revealed in affidavits in the filing, according to the Detroit News.

Borman tossed the suit last month after an appeals court kicked it back to him, saying GM supposed “injuries” weren’t a result of the FCA’s alleged violations.

“GM’s failure to plead sufficient facts showing that it was proximately harmed ‘by reason of’ Defendants’ alleged § 1962 violations means that it did not state a cognizable civil RICO claim,” Borman said in his 30-page ruling that reviewed GM original allegations and legal arguments.

(Appeals court nixes GM-FCA CEO pow-wow.)

GM filed a lawsuit last year claiming rival Fiat Chrysler had corrupted officials of the United Auto Workers union in a bid to gain a competitive advantage, has been dismissed by a federal judge in Detroit.

After federal investigators had spent several months uncovering a corrupt bargain between FCA executives and UAW officers, GM decided it had been aggrieved and filed suit.

Alphons Iacobelli, right, was previously sentenced to 5.5 years in prison for his role in the FCA-UAW training fund scandal, including paying off now-deceased UAW VP General Holiefield’s mortgage.

Specifically, GM alleged that Fiat Chrysler “corrupted” collective bargaining agreements between GM and UAW in 2009, 2011 and 2015 by paying millions in dollars in bribes, and that the alleged scheme was authorized at the highest levels of Fiat Chrysler, including the company’s late Chief Executive Officer Sergio Marchionne.

The lawsuits claim that throughout the defendants made false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that FCA employed a bribery scheme to obtain favorable terms in its collective bargaining agreement with the UAW.

(FCA hit with series of class-action lawsuits over bribery charges.)

Ultimately, the investigation has led to the conviction of three FCA executives and more than a dozen UAW officers and officials as well as the widow of the former UAW officer in charge of union’s FCA section when the bribery and other corrupt acts that served as the basis of the GM lawsuit took place.

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FCA CEO Manley Says Hybrid Wrangler Arriving By End of 2020

FCA CEO Mike Manley told attendees at the company’s annual shareholder meeting held online that the new Jeep Wrangler would be here by the end of 2020.

After sitting on the sidelines when it came to electric vehicles and their derivatives Fiat Chrysler revealed it’s now in the game with the introduction of the Jeep Wrangler plug-in hybrid.

FCA CEO Mike Manley discussed the importance of the new entry during the company’s annual general meeting held online Friday. Prior to the Wrangler, the company’s only real efforts at electrification were the current Chrysler Pacifica hybrid and a past iteration of the Fiat 500e.

That vehicle was so reviled by then-CEO Sergio Marchionne, he implored people not to buy it because he said the company lost too much money on the sale of each vehicle. The new Wrangler hybrid will usher in a new era at FCA.

(Jeep bringing three plug-in hybrids to CES.)

“Jeep’s icon the Wrangler will arrive on the market with a 4xe version that will be on the front line of our electrification strategy in North America,” he said during the automaker’s annual general meeting held online because of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the Detroit News.

All Jeep plug-in hybrids will adopt this badge in the future, starting with the new Wrangler hybrid.

Going forward, all electrified Jeep products will carry a special “4xe” badge. Now the arrival of the hybrid Wrangler wasn’t really a surprise, as had been discussed for some time and made an earlier appearance at CES in Las Vegas in January.

No real details were given at the time, but now Manley said it will be available in the U.S. by the end of this year. China and Europe will get it sometime in the first quarter of 2021. Manley didn’t offer up what Jeep models are next to be electrified, if you will.

(Click Here for an earlier look at Jeep’s PHEV plans.)

However, at CES the Wrangler was joined by Compass and Renegade hybrid vehicles. It wasn’t even the first real event for those vehicles either, Jeep having teased versions of the Compass and Renegade plug-ins last year.

The new Jeep Wrangler hybrid is slated to arrive at the end of 2020.

If it hasn’t torn up those original plans, we can expect to see the new plug-in hybrids deliver up to 31 miles range and the ability to operate at speeds up to 62 mph in all-electric mode. The gas and electric power sources, the brand said last year, combine to deliver about 240 horsepower.

The hybrids are critical to the commitment to offer electrified versions of all Jeeps by 2022 to meeting tougher carbon emissions standards in other parts of the world. Orders for the plug-in Jeep Compass and Renegade crossovers in Europe will start in by early July.

(FCA makes splash at SEMA as Jeep takes 4×4 award.)

Manley did not talk about the brand’s larger, pricier models, which will need to find a place for a plug sooner rather than later, especially the Wagoneer and Grand Wagoneer, which will be built in Warren, Michigan.

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