Autoblog

The Fiat group seems to be on a ceaseless campaign to bring its products to the U.S. market. A range of products from Alfa Romeo are in the pipeline for importation, the upcoming high-performance Abarth version of the new Fiat 500 has been tipped to make the trans-Atlantic voyage, and now Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne has announced plans to bring the group's heavy truck subsidiary Iveco to the American market. But while the 500 and Alfas may take a while to make the trip, Marchionne has a much tighter time-frame in mind for Iveco, declaring that they company "will have something done within six to nine months." That's mighty soon.

Iveco, short for Industrial Vehicle Corporation, builds close to half a million diesel engines and some 200,000 commercial vehicles every year, including heavy trucks, military vehicles, fire engines, buses, vans and even a formula racing truck that makes NASCAR Craftsman Series trucks look like toys.

[Source: Automotive News - sub. req'd]

When it comes to turnarounds, Fiat serves as a case study. The Italian institution that rules over Fiat, Lancia, Alfa Romeo, Ferrari, and Maserati, trucks, agricultural equipment, construction equipment, and automobile components, lost $1 billion in 2000. Contrast that with 2006, when it posted a 35% jump in revenues year-on-year, and its operating profit was $384 million -- a far cry from the $332 million loss of 2005. Fiat's current market cap is more than that of GM and Ford combined in Europe, at $32.5 billion.

Sergio Marchionne, CEO of the Fiat Group, is the man who led the charge, beginning in 2000 when he was hired from a Swiss firm. CNN has a lengthy profile on the Italian that delves into how he did it. The story will be familiar to all of us: "The car company had the talent, knowledge and skills, but it lacked leadership." It was "a problem of culture - big offices, big waste, and nobody responsible for anything." Too many vehicle discounts. Too many platforms. Too many people doing the same thing across brands. Cars not selling enough. Models not updated. To fix it, Marchionne, an outsider to the auto industry, sheared away excess layers of management, streamlined the design process, rationalized platforms, boosted production, didn't pick fights with the unions, forged partnerships in China, India, Russia, and Turkey, and got out of the partnership with GM (for which Fiat made $2 billion).

Continues after the jump.

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[Source: CNN]

It's shake-up season at the automotive giants. Both Volkswagen and PSA Peugeot-Citroen announced new CEOs just the other day. Ford recently got a new chief, too. Even Ferrari has changed up their management. Next in line is their sister company Fiat: Sergio Marchionne is stepping down as CEO in 2007.

The role Marchionne is vacating is not as head of the entire Fiat group, which controls the bulk of the Italian automotive industry (including Ferrari, Maserati, Alfa Romeo, Lancia and Iveco trucks), but the Fiat car division specifically. In that role, Marchionne has engineered the revitalization of the brand with the successful Grande Punto and the launch of several new models, including the Sedici, Bravo and Linea. Not bad, especially considering he only took over in February 2005.

Fiat hasn't announced who'll take over for Sergio, but the departing CEO says they'll most definitely be promoting from within rather than recruiting from outside the company. Given Marchionne's success, we wouldn't be surprised to see him take on a new role within the company.

[Source: Detroit News Auto Insider]

After an absence of more than a decade, Fiat's Alfa Romeo brand is returning to the U.S. market. In a conference call May 3rd, Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne confirmed that he has plans in place to begin distributing Alfa Romeo models in the U.S. through  Maserati's dealer network, possibly as soon as late 2007.

Italiaspeed reports that the U.S. launch models will likely be the upper end of the range - Alfa 159, Brera (shown above) and Spider. And yes, this means that the 8c Competizione is also coming to the U.S.

[Source: Italiaspeed, Alfa Romeo]