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FCA's European boss quits after losing out as Marchionne's replacement

MILAN — Fiat Chrysler's European boss has quit, adding to the problems facing new CEO Mike Manley, who must deliver on promises to boost production of SUVs and catch up with rivals in electric cars. Jeep division head Manley was named on Saturday to succeed Chief Executive Sergio Marchionne, one of the auto industry's most tenacious and respected leaders, who fell seriously ill after suffering complications following surgery. It emerged on Monday that Alfredo Altavilla, head of Fiat Chrysler's business in the Europe, Middle East Africa had resigned, according to a source with knowledge of the matter. He had been a rival for the top job along with Manley and Chief Financial Officer Richard Palmer. It's another complication to new CEO Manley's task of executing his predecessor's plan to keep the world's seventh-largest carmaker competitive in the absence of a merger. Marchionne had been due to step down next April, so the market reaction was limited on Monday. The shares initially fell more than 5 percent, but then pared some losses and were down 2.4 percent by 0930 GMT. "The downside may be modest, at least in the next 12 months. But long-term concerns will build — Marchionne ran FCA in a command and control style, with constant firefighting measures," said Bernstein analyst Max Warburton. Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) said British-born Manley would pursue the strategy that Marchionne outlined last month. FCA has pledged to increase production of sport utility vehicles and invest in electric and hybrid cars to double operating profit by 2022. It also unveiled bold targets for Jeep, which has become FCA's ticket to creating a high-margin brand with global appeal. Reviving struggling brands Analysts said that choosing Manley, 54, under whose watch Jeep's sales surged fourfold, sent a clear message that FCA was staying on course and would keep the Jeep brand at the heart of its growth plan. "Manley knows that his primary focus is on execution and that, already, he has a strategy into which his team has bought," said George Galliers, an analyst at Evercore ISI. "There is no reason the 2022 plan cannot be executed." Under Manley, the company is expected to sharpen its focus on revamping individual brands, including ailing Fiat in Europe, Chrysler in the United States and Alfa Romeo, which has yet to turn a profit despite multibillion-euro investments.

Stellantis sees vehicle loan durations extended amid banking turmoil

Stellantis is seeing clients seeking longer-term financing and leasing deals for their vehicles as a consequence of higher global interest rates, the carmaker's head for the business said. Chief Affiliates Officer Philippe de Rovira said loans which normally had a three-year maturity were now increasingly moved to four years. "This allows customers to get a car for a monthly instalment that is similar to that they had before," he said. The world's third largest carmaker by sales on Tuesday announced it had completed a plan announced in late 2021 to reshuffle and simplify its leasing and financing operations in Europe. Under its terms, Stellantis created a 50-50 single long term multi-brand leasing company named Leasys with Credit Agricole Consumer Finance. It also set up local joint ventures in European countries for its new Stellantis Financial Services unit, formerly Banque PSA Finance, with BNP Paribas Personal Finance and Santander Consumer Finance. "These banks have always had better funding conditions than those we can have as an automaker," de Rovira said. Benefits of the plan included cutting the number of financing and leasing entities the group runs in each country and the number of IT systems it uses, with expected savings exceeding 30% in this particular area, he added. De Rovira said the group had a huge portfolio of orders it had not yet delivered due to supply chain shortages impacting production. "Demand is not our main issue. The issue is to deliver as fast as we can cars that are in our order portfolio, which is still at record levels," he said. The group aims to expand its corporate leased vehicle fleet to more than one million units in 2026 and to double net income from its so-called banking activities to 5.8 billion euros ($6.3 billion) by 2030. De Rovira said Stellantis was not seeing a downward trend in vehicle pricing. "Probably the significant price increases we have seen in 2021 and 2022 will not be repeated because the context is changing, but for the moment we don't see decreases, we see stabilisation". ($1 = 0.9188 euros) (Reporting by Giulio Piovaccari and Gilles Guillaume; Editing by Jan Harvey) Earnings/Financials Plants/Manufacturing Alfa Romeo Chrysler Dodge Jeep RAM

2018 Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid Long-Term Update | Keeping things fresh

We're big fans of our long-term 2018 Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid. In the few months we've had it, we've racked up quite a few miles. We have some road-trip stories coming later on (including a 2,500-mile round trip to New England), but I wanted to highlight a small but interesting feature on our Ocean Blue people mover, the "Fuel and Oil Refresh Mode". From the owner's manual: Since it is possible to operate this vehicle for extended periods of time without running the gas engine, the fuel within the vehicle's fuel tank can become stale. To prevent engine and/or fuel system damage due to stale fuel, as well as, maintaining internal engine lubrication, this vehicle is equipped with a "Fuel and Oil Refresh Mode". The vehicle will automatically enter into the Fuel and Oil Refresh Mode to minimize potential for stale fuel, and to ensure lubrication of internal engine components. When operating in this mode, the gas engine will run to provide vehicle propulsion (electric only operation is inhibited). A message will be displayed in the instrument cluster whenever Fuel and Oil Refresh Mode is active. The vehicle will automatically exit the Fuel and Oil Refresh Mode when conditions have been satisfied. If the vehicle enters Fuel and Oil Refresh Mode, due to fuel which has been in the fuel tank for a long period of time (becoming stale fuel), the engine will run whenever the vehicle is operational (no electric only operation) until the low fuel level warning is activated. It is possible to exit the Fuel and Oil Refresh Mode sooner by adding new fuel to the vehicle's fuel tank. Basically, the engine will automatically cycle on to help burn fuel and lubricate the engine if the Pacifica has been running on pure electricity for an extended period of time. This may sound wasteful, but fuel does go stale and it's not good for the Pacifica's V6 to go without circulating oil every once in a while. A message pops up on the instrument cluster and the engine runs until the computer decides its cycled enough. In our experience, it's not run for more than a few minutes at a time. Since most of us live within 15 or so miles of the office, we can usually make it home and back without expending the Pacifica's 33-mile electric range, even if we make a trip to the store or go out for dinner. The refresh mode has kicked on a few times already, and we expect it to kick on quite a few more times before our loan is up. Related Video: