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FCA's large, LX-based RWD cars will stick around until 2020

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles plans to stick with the Dodge Challenger, Dodge Charger, and Chrysler 300 until at least 2020, reports Automotive News. The information comes from two unnamed sources and was loosely confirmed by details in the automaker's new labor contract with Unifor, Canada's auto union. The plan, according to two anonymous sources, is to lightly refresh the Challenger, Charger, and 300 until the vehicles make the switch to FCA's new Giorgio platform. The refresh, as Automotive News points out, will happen in 2018. The Giorgio platform currently underpins the Alfa Romeo Giulia and is expected to find its way to two of the three large American vehicles for the 2021 model year. At that time, FCA will discontinue either the Charger or the 300, claim AN's unnamed sources. If one of the vehicles were to go, it would most likely be the 300. The 300's LX platform would be approximately 15 years old in 2020 and the vehicle doesn't draw in as many sales as the Challenger or the Charger. The Charger made the switch from the LX platform in 2010 with the current model utilizing the mildly updated LD platform, while the Challenger recently moved from the LC platform to the LA platform last year. All of those rear-wheel-drive platforms are closely related. Automotive News points out that FCA CEO Sergio Marchionne stated that the new platform could be utilized across various applications in a conference call with analysts last month. The plan, according to the report, is to stretch and widen the Giorgio platform for the next-gen Challenger and Charger. The new platform is also rigid enough to allow the automaker to add a convertible to its lineup, which could lend further credence to rumors of an upcoming Barracuda. Hopefully, the move to the new Giorgio platform doesn't delay the all-wheel-drive Challenger GT AWD or the wide-body, Hellcat-powered Challenger ADR. We'll just have to wait and see. Related Video: News Source: Automotive News - sub. req. Chrysler Dodge Coupe Performance Sedan FCA fiat chrysler automobiles

FCA worker in Indiana tests for coronavirus, but the plant will stay open

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV said Thursday that an employee has tested positive for COVID-19 at its Kokomo, Indiana, transmission plant, but the location will remain open. The Italian-American automaker said the company placed the employee and his immediate co-workers and others he may have come into direct contact with in home quarantine. The automaker said it is “deploying additional sanitization measures across the entire facility, re-timing break times to avoid crowding and deploying social spacing.” Fiat Chrysler is canceling all in-person meetings unless “business critical” and conducted meetings through video conferencing technologies. Automakers also have canceled non-essential travel. Ford, meanwhile, said its plants in North America remain unaffected. General Motors spokesman Jim Cain said the Detroit automaker has not had any cases of the coronavirus in its North American plants yet, citing such measures as reduced travel and restricted entry to plants as helping. How the No. 1 U.S. automaker would respond to a positive test would depend on the situation, he added. “You do plan to operate with a certain amount of absenteeism, but every facility has a different operating plan,” he said. The Fiat side of the FCA operation, meanwhile,  is temporarily halting operations at some plants in Italy and will reduce production rates in response to coronavirus in the country, the largest outbreak in Europe, a spokesman for the automaker said on Wednesday. FCA said in a statement it had stepped up measures across its facilities, including intensive sanitation of all work and rest areas, to support the government's directives to curb the spread of the infectious disease. "As a result of taking these actions the company will, where necessary, make temporary closures of its plants across Italy," it said. The spokesman said affected plants were Pomigliano, Melfi, Atessa and Cassino, each of them halted for two or three days between Wednesday and Saturday. FCA said that to allow greater spacing of employees at their workstations, "daily production rates will be lowered to accommodate the adapted manufacturing processes." However, a source close to the matter said FCA did not expect an impact on overall production rates. The source added that temporary closures were in no way linked to disruptions of auto parts supplies following anti-virus measures imposed by Rome all over Italy.

FCA shifts Ram Heavy Duty trucks from Mexico to U.S., creating 2,500 jobs

DETROIT — Fiat Chrysler Automobiles said on Thursday it will shift production of Ram Heavy Duty pickup trucks from Mexico to Michigan in 2020, a move that lowers the risk to the automaker's profit should President Donald Trump pull the United States out of the North American Free Trade Agreement. Fiat Chrysler said it would create 2,500 jobs at a factory in Warren, Michigan, near Detroit, where the Ram 1500 is currently built, and FCA will invest $1 billion in the facility. The Mexican plant will be "repurposed to produce future commercial vehicles" for sale global markets. Mexico has free trade agreements with numerous countries. Fiat Chrysler Chief Executive Sergio Marchionne a year ago raised the possibility that the automaker would move production of its heavy-duty pickups to the United States, saying U.S. tax and trade policy would influence the decision.If the United States exits NAFTA, it could mean that automakers would pay a 25 percent duty on pickup trucks assembled in Mexico and shipped to the United States. About 90 percent of the Ram pickups made at Fiat Chrysler's Saltillo plant in Mexico are sold in the United States or Canada, company officials said. Negotiators for the United States, Mexico and Canada are scheduled to meet later this month for another round of talks on revising NAFTA. Canadian government officials earlier this week said they are convinced that Trump intends to announce his intention to quit the agreement. Trump has threatened to force the rollback of NAFTA, which enables the free flow of goods made in the United States, Canada and Mexico across the borders of those countries. He also has criticized automakers for moving jobs and investment in new manufacturing facilities to Mexico and prodded them to add more auto production in the United States. View 31 Photos On Wednesday, Toyota and Mazda announced they would build a new $1.6 billion auto assembly plant in Alabama, drawing praise from Trump. Vice President Mike Pence praised Fiat Chrysler's announcement. "Manufacturing is back. Great announcement. Proof that this admin's AMERICA FIRST policies are WORKING!" Pence said in a Twitter posting. Chrysler raised its output in Mexico by 39 percent in 2017 to 639,000 vehicles, according to Mexican government data. That made Fiat Chrysler the third-largest producer of vehicles in Mexico in 2017, after Nissan and General Motors.