2014 Fiat 500l Trekking on 2040-cars

Auto blog

Could Chrysler leave Michigan for Tennessee?

Detroit's Big Three could become the Big Two. According to an AP report in The Detroit News, state officials have been lobbying for Fiat-Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne to select Tennessee as the location for Fiat's joint headquarters with Chrysler Group LLC.
This weekend, Marchionne met with Tennessee governor Bill Haslam at a ceremony celebrating the expansion of a Fiat subsidiary plant in the city of Pulaski. The AP report does not mention any serious talks about headquarters relocation, only that Tennessee officials have been "working me over pretty well," according to Marchionne.
Fiat hopes to complete its merger with the Auburn Hills-based automaker sometime next year, and earlier reports have stated that the company is seeking $10 billion in financing to buy the remaining bits of Chrysler. If the company were to relocate, it would join Nissan and Volkswagen in having major American automotive operations in Tennessee. Of course, that whole "Imported From Detroit" thing would need to go out the window, as well.

Fiat recalling 500e for faulty power inverter

Chrysler is recalling 4,141 Fiat 500e models from the 2013 and 2014 model years because they could lose power. According to the automaker, the power inverter module could allow coolant to seep onto electrical components. This could cause a short circuit and power loss. The part in question is responsible for altering the electric current.
The company discovered the problem while reviewing warranty claims, and it found five cases where the fault actually occurred. It's not aware of any injuries or accidents tied to this issue. The recall affects cars built between September 24, 2012, and April 4, 2014, and all of them are in the US. Chrysler will contact owners directly to schedule the repair.
This is the second recall for the electric hatchback. Chrysler previously had to repair more than 270 of them last year to replace bolts that secure the vehicles' half shafts.

Four-horse race opens up for next Chrysler-Fiat CEO

There are some companies that could change leadership overnight and still remain more or less the operations that they are. But some have built themselves up around one central figure. Just ask Carlos Tavares, who found he couldn't escape the long shadow of Renault-Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn. Tavares recently left to find his own limelight. But Ghosn isn't the only executive who presides over two disparate automakers on opposite ends of the globe.
Having built up Fiat and Chrysler around himself, we can hardly imagine either automaker getting along without Sergio Marchionne. But the day will come when the famously sweater-clad bigwig will step down. The pressing questions remain when when that day will come, and who will take his place. The only solid clues we have are in the statements made mostly by Marchionne himself, but those statements have been all over the place. When speaking to Automotive News in 2012, he said he would step down "no earlier than 2013, no later than 2015." But a year later, he had already seemingly changed his tune, indicating he could still be at the helm in 2016. Fiat chairman John Elkann seems to think Marchionne, 61, could and should stay on longer.