Patrick McIntyre interviews Tim Kuniskis, Fiat Chrysler Head of Passenger Cars from the 2016 NAIAS.
Transcript[MUSIC PLAYING]
PATRICK MCINTYRE: I'm here with FCA Head of Passenger brands, Tim Kuniskis. Tim, thank you so much for doing this. I appreciate this. I know you guys are super busy. You guys are extra busy because after watching all the reveals, all the press conferences, you guys, I have to say, are probably the highlight of the show.
TIM KUNISKIS: You know, it's getting a lot of attention right now because all the social media buzz and chatter and everything out there has been on a minivan, and it's kind of surprising people. And I keep telling everybody, no, no, no, don't be surprised. There's a real reason for that. You know, we've sold 14 million minivans.
PATRICK MCINTYRE: You know what you're doing.
TIM KUNISKIS: We have six million on the road today. Well, it's not so much that. It's-- you've got a lot of people out there that have had some great life experiences in these vehicles, and they remember them very fondly. And when they hear we've got a new game-changing one out there, like-- I've got to check that out.
PATRICK MCINTYRE: Oh, yeah.
TIM KUNISKIS: That's what's driving all that excitement and buzz. And people are saying, I've got to see what this is all about.
PATRICK MCINTYRE: The lady I co-host with, Jessi Combs, she's kind of a lead foot. She's a-- she's a motorhead.
TIM KUNISKIS: I know her.
PATRICK MCINTYRE: She loves that. And when we started, she said, minivans? And then after we were done, she went, minivans. OK. So it works.
TIM KUNISKIS: If it can win over Jessi--
PATRICK MCINTYRE: Yeah, yeah. It certainly works. So when we talk about the vehicle that we're talking about here, it's a hybrid, but it's not necessarily-- it's branded as a hybrid, but it's still a plug-in. Correct?
TIM KUNISKIS: Yep. Absolutely.
PATRICK MCINTYRE: So you feel there's going to be any sort of, like, uh, introduction process, a learning curve for new folks who aren't used to that yet?
TIM KUNISKIS: Well, that's exactly why we did it as a matter of fact because people are-- in this segment, they're buying on functionality. They're not buying on technology. They're not buying a sports car. So they're not really interested in I want the latest technology.
PATRICK MCINTYRE: Mm-hmm.
TIM KUNISKIS: They want the best function for their daily life need. They don't really care how it works. They just want it to work and work perfectly for what they want. So what we're telling them is, hey, we built you a hassle-free hybrid. You can do your daily errands, run 30 miles a day on full battery electric. But you never have to worry about range anxiety running for 30 miles. But let's say you've got to go 40, 50, 60, whatever. Then it seamlessly changes over to gas mode, and the 3.6 in your gas engine kicks in. You can go 530 miles and never have to worry about it. Plug it in. Don't plug it in. It doesn't matter. You get 28, or you plug it in, you get 80.
PATRICK MCINTYRE: Yeah, it seems to be that we're getting rid of this term, range anxiety. We're slowly eliminating this from our--
TIM KUNISKIS: Gone.
PATRICK MCINTYRE: --dialogue. It's no longer there anymore.
TIM KUNISKIS: You can buy this car and plug it in-- get 80, or you can buy it and never plug it in. It's OK. Whatever you want to do.
PATRICK MCINTYRE: So when we're looking at, obviously, the passenger version, is there-- are we talking about, possibly, fleet versions of the minivan at some point?
TIM KUNISKIS: We'll sell it at fleet as well. So there'll be commercial sales, there'll be rental sales, and there'll be, obviously, retail sales.
PATRICK MCINTYRE: OK. And then China's an emerging market when it comes to minivans. Again, it's something I did not know, but is this something-- what are you guys doing as far as getting into that, or how do you see-- foresee the market going there with that?
TIM KUNISKIS: Right now, we're calling the market about 95%-ish, uh, North America, but we do have some slated to go to Asia.
PATRICK MCINTYRE: And is there-- are we possibly looking at a trickle down effect? I mean, something like this making its way possibly to other products someday-- without giving away secrets. But possibly some other vehicles--
TIM KUNISKIS: You never know. I mean, the reaction to it's been fantastic. So you never know.
PATRICK MCINTYRE: Yeah. Is there something that you guys are focusing on as far as-- you're known for performance. I mean, as we look around and there's a lot of these things that put a smile on my face, put a smile on a lot of people's faces. What do you do to let people know that it's not just about performance when it comes to not just this, but the other line of vehicles that you have?
TIM KUNISKIS: Well, it's still about performance, right? But it's just a different kind of performance. Not looking for quarter mile times, but I'm looking for a great car that'll do everything for me. That's performance to a different segment of people. If you look at this, everybody asks me, what's your favorite thing about the minivan? And I tell them, it's the most unsexy thing about the van. It's the platform itself. This is-- it's been a long time since we've done a new platform for a minivan. But if you think about it from a technology standpoint, you've got two big sliding doors, and you have stow and go tubs, which are holes in the floor.
PATRICK MCINTYRE: Right.
TIM KUNISKIS: So you really have a van with a front and a back with holes in the middle, which makes it very difficult to make a rigid chassis. Well, now that we have a brand new platform, it's 100% more rigid than the previous generation van. What does that give us? It gives us a very stiff chassis. Nobody's going to see that in a catalog. They're not going to see it on the web. So they're not going to get excited about it. But what they are going to get excited about is when they buy the van and drive the van, they're going to go, oh my god, it actually handles like a luxury Sedan. And I have the functionality of a minivan. It's amazing. You actually have no compromises in this vehicle.
PATRICK MCINTYRE: Which I don't have children myself. I don't have a minivan, but I've had a chance to be inside of some of your products. And I'm always shocked at how much power there is, how much versatility there is. And for anybody like Jessi, who may have said it at one point, I say, you know what, it's not like that. It's not like what you remember a minivan to be. These are future products like--
TIM KUNISKIS: So handling like luxury Sedan and 287 horsepower in a nine-speed transmission, it's actually a fun-to-drive car.
PATRICK MCINTYRE: Yeah. I want to know this. This is just personal. This is off the record. What are you guys first testing when it comes to these things? Do you just let, like, a grade-schooler loose and just have them run around and play inside and see what they can and can't do and, like, destroy?
TIM KUNISKIS: The great thing about this van is we have kind of a secret weapon. You know, we've sold so many of them and we have six million still on the road. So we actually went to those people. Not all of them, obviously. But we went to a lot of them and said, hey, if you could design your own van, everything you would ever do, what would you do? We gave them everything they asked for and more. So we already know we're giving them the van they want.
PATRICK MCINTYRE: Yeah. And, I mean, do you think there's ever a day when no matter how good somebody makes it that eventually people are going to go, yeah, we just don't want a minivan anymore? Is that possible?
TIM KUNISKIS: It's interesting you say that because everybody's saying the segment is, you know, at an all-time low, and why did you invest so much money in the segment? If you look at the segment, it's 500,000 units right now, and it's projected to be 500,000 units for the next couple of years. Um, the other thing that we're seeing is millennials are now starting to have kids. Millennials are very practical. Minivans are very practical. There's going to be four million more kids in the population between now and 2025. That's good for minivan sales.
Now, also if you look at that segment size, yes, it used to be a million units. So it's half of what it used to be. But when it was a million units, there were 16 vans being sold. Now there's a half a million, there's only four being sold and two of them are ours.
PATRICK MCINTYRE: Right.
TIM KUNISKIS: So for us, It's really good business.
PATRICK MCINTYRE: Yeah, that is good. Whittle it down as much as you want. You guys can still take over from there. I love it. Do you see any-- any future as far as autonomous goes? I mean, I know it's the big word. Everybody's been asking and talking about that at this show, especially when we're seeing reveals of things coming at-- things like at CES or-- you know. Do you see that as a possibility where at some point, the entire family turns around, we all play cards, and we don't even worry about it?
TIM KUNISKIS: There's certain aspects of it that are very interesting. I mean, we say kind of tongue in cheek that this van is actually semi-autonomous because if you think about everything that this can do that you didn't used to be able to do with a car-- I mean, you don't have to touch the doors-- kick. wave, open the sliding doors, the liftgate, passive entry, the adaptive cruise control, forward collision warning, and the cameras. The car can see itself. It can stay in its own lane with lane mitigation.
PATRICK MCINTYRE: Sure.
TIM KUNISKIS: It can stop itself. It can stay in bumper-to-bumper traffic with adaptive cruise control. It could stop, then go. Then stop, then go. So the only thing that's left is the steering wheel--
PATRICK MCINTYRE: Right
TIM KUNISKIS: --and the gas pedal. Other than that, it basically does everything for you. So some of those technologies are really interesting.
PATRICK MCINTYRE: Yeah
TIM KUNISKIS: Whether it will ever get to the complete autonomous, I don't know. That's not for me to say, but some of the things that it's bringing with it are pretty cool.
PATRICK MCINTYRE: Yeah, and you're bringing a lot to this segment, a lot of great features that people are looking for and we appreciate that.
TIM KUNISKIS: That's excellent.
PATRICK MCINTYRE: Again, congratulations, great-looking vehicle, and good job on the show. Thanks, Tim.
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