2019 Chrysler Pacifica Touring L Plus Rear Entry Wheelchair Accessible Ramp Van on 2040-cars

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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.

Fiat Chrysler's profit boosted by Ram and Jeep in North America

MILAN/DETROIT — Fiat Chrysler took the market by surprise by sticking to its full-year profit guidance on Wednesday after a strong performance from its Ram pickup truck in North America helped it defy an industry slowdown. Chief Executive Mike Manley, in FCA's first earnings release since a failed attempt to merge with France's Renault, also left the door open to that or other deals. "We are open to opportunity," Manley said on a call with analysts. "I have no doubt why there still would be interest in it," he added, when pressed on what it would take to revive talks with Renault. Manley declined to comment further. FCA last month abandoned its $35 billion merger offer for Renault, blaming French politics for scuttling what would have been a landmark deal to create the world's third-biggest automaker. Manley said a merger was not a must-have and Fiat Chrysler's business plan was strong. The company said it remained confident its adjusted earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) would top last year's 6.7 billion euros ($7.5 billion). Given disappointing forecasts from other automakers this earnings season, FCA's confirmation of the outlook sent Milan-listed shares in the Italian-American automaker, whose other brands include Jeep, up over 4%. A broad-based auto sales downturn has rattled the sector, forcing FCA's competitors — including Renault, Daimler and Aston Martin — to cut their sales forecasts after second-quarter results, while U.S. carmaker Ford gave a weaker-than-expected 2019 profit outlook. Japan's Nissan, a long-term partner of Renault, said it would cut 12,500 jobs by 2023 after its earnings collapsed. In the second quarter FCA's adjusted EBIT totaled 1.52 billion euros, versus analysts' expectations of 1.43 billion euros, according to a Reuters poll. FCA's U.S. shipments were down 12% in the second quarter but the group said that the successful performance of its Ram brand resulted in an enhanced share of the large pickup truck market of 27.9%, up 7 percentage points from last year. Adjusted EBIT margin in North America rose to 8.9% from 6.5% in the first quarter, thanks to strong demand for the heavy-duty Ram and the new Jeep Gladiator pickup. Chief Financial Officer Richard Palmer also said FCA expected to report up to 10% margins in the region in both the third and fourth quarters.

2018 Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid long-term wrap-up | We're really gonna miss this one

Last year, we had the opportunity to live the (mini) van life for a year, with a loan from Chrysler. Even better, ours was going to be a plug-in hybrid. We took delivery of an Ocean Blue 2018 Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid Limited late last summer, and it quickly became more than a simple mode of transportation. The plug-in Pacifica was a much-beloved member of the Autoblog family, so much so that one editor considered buying it at the end of our loan. The end of that loan has, indeed, come, but not before this thing ferried editors, video producers and their families, friends, dogs and a whole lot of their belongings over a considerable portion of the country. It spent a lot of time in the wild woods of Northern Michigan, took a road trip through the Northeast and a vacation to Florida. It braved the cold in Buffalo, New York, on Nokian winter tires. The heated steering wheel didn’t quite keep us warm, but we didnÂ’t mind so much, with this quiet vanÂ’s peaceful manner. We didnÂ’t drive this Pacifica Hybrid out West, but West Coast Editor James Riswick got one in Oregon to find out what it was like, and we told Big Blue all about it. We worried a bit when she went in for a recall, and were proud of how the Pacifica stood up to a rival. In all, we put close to 26,000 miles on the Pacifica Hybrid — roughly 9,000 of which were under electric power alone — before reluctantly giving it back. WeÂ’re not sure where she ended up, but thereÂ’s a good chance that giant interior still carries a part of us with it, whether itÂ’s a stray dog hair under a carpet mat, a Cheerio wedged in a seat cushion or a fingerprint on some tucked-away surface. We loved that damn minivan. Let us tell you why, one last time. Senior Editor, Green, John Beltz Snyder: The Pacifica Hybrid made countless trips with me between my home in Ann Arbor and our office in Birmingham, with a fair share of 500-mile round trips to our cottage Up North. Whenever I had it, my son — who grew from a large toddler to a large pre-schooler over the course of our loan — wanted to sit inside. Sometimes, he wanted to go for quiet laps around the driveway. Others, heÂ’d want to play the letter game on the rear-seat entertainment system, or play with the power doors. HeÂ’d pretend it was an airplane taking us to Dublin again, or a spaceship he could show off to the babysitter. It was a safe, comfortable space for him, and for me.