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Mike Manley named CEO of FCA amid Sergio Marchionne health crisis

Mike Manley has been immediately granted "all the powers of CEO" of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles. In a statement, FCA said its Board of Directors made this decision "in order to provide for his full authority and operational continuity for the company." Manley, who has been at the helm of Jeep since 2009 and Ram since 2015, is expected to be named an executive director for FCA after the next shareholder's meeting. In a similar statement, Ferrari said it had "named John Elkann as Chairman and will propose to Shareholders, at a meeting to be called in the coming days, that Louis C. Camilleri be named as CEO." CNH Industrial, a company that makes trucks, agricultural, and industrial equipment and which Marchionne also chairs, named Suzanna Heywood, as his replacement. Sergio Marchionne, who had served as CEO of both FCA and Ferrari, suffered "unexpected complications" as he was recovering from surgery performed earlier this month. FCA's statement adds that these complications "have worsened significantly in recent hours." Marchionne, credited with rescuing Fiat and Chrysler from bankruptcy since taking the wheel at the Italian carmaker in 2004, had been due to step down as the head of Fiat Chrysler next April. His internal successor had yet to be named. Marchionne had previously said he planned to stay on as Ferrari Chairman and CEO until 2021.Reuters contributed to this report.Related Video: Image Credit: Mark Thompson/Getty Hirings/Firings/Layoffs Chrysler Ferrari Fiat Sergio Marchionne

BMW, Ferrari, VW cars use tungsten mined by terrorists

Bloomberg Markets is reporting that BMW, Volkswagen and Ferrari have been using tungsten ore sourced from Columbia's FARC rebel terrorists. The extensive story focuses on Columbia's illegal mining trade and calls into question the provenance of the rare ore that is used not only in crankshaft parts production, but is also found in the world's computing and telecommunications industry for use in screens.
The ore is mined by the FARC (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia, or Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia - People's Army), and exported to Pennsylvania, where it is refined. The refined ore is then sent over to Austria, where a company called Plansee turns it into a finished product. Now, it's important to note that we aren't talking about the world's supply of tungsten here. In 2012, Plansee's American refinery purchased 93.2 metric tons of tungsten, valued at $1.8 million. That's peanuts, with the entire Colombian tungsten mining industry producing just one percent of the world's supplies.
That doesn't make indirectly supporting FARC any more acceptable, though. BMW, VW and Ferrari are all committed to not accepting mineral supplies from the Democratic Republic of Congo, which is also in the grips of a guerrilla insurrection funded, in part, by illegal mining. The same commitment would figure to extend to Colombian mining, but as BMW points out, it's difficult for a multi-national manufacturer to know where every item in its supply chain comes from. A company spokesperson says as much, telling Bloomberg, "These few grams out of the billions of tons of raw materials passing through the BMW supply chain are of no practical relevance."

Ferrari vs. Ferrari: Cut convertibles unloved by collectors?

The New York Times' Wheels blog has a really interesting story on a pair of Ferraris that are set to be auctioned off in Monterey during the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance. While the two cars are similar on the surface, their differing histories and Ferrari's attitude towards one of them has led to a sort of experimental auction process.
On the one hand, we have one of ten 1967 275 GTB/4 NART Spiders, in the classic Rosso Corsa and appearing at RM Auctions and seen above. On the other, we have a Fly Yellow version that started life as a 1965 275 GTB Coupe, and was converted into a NART Spider. Called a "cut" car, this particular replica is one of about 100 GTB Coupes that were converted into convertibles to satiate the climbing demand for ultra-rare Spiders.
This will mark one of the first times that an original NART Spider will go toe to toe with a replica of itself at auction, and will answer a number of questions about just how important provenance is in the collector car world. Head on over to The Times blog for the full story.