The era of Sergio Marchionne is nearing its end, but before the head of Fiat-Chrysler quits his job next year, he wants to ready all brands for an electrified future. His 5-year plan calls for a move away from diesel and into electric and hybrid models.
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In mid-2019, Ferrari’s first production hybrid car will see the light of the day, says CEO Sergio Marchionne, following the very limited hybrid hypercar La Ferrari. Once the new system gets through testing it will likely power the Italians’ hybrid SUV.
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Fiat Chrysler wants to phase out all diesel models over the next four years, according to a report by the Financial Times. This includes all passenger cars made by FCA labels Fiat, Chrysler, Maserati, Alfa Romeo and Jeep.
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Ferrari is working on an electric sports car to finally fight Tesla. The electric Ferrari is due to hit the market before the Roadster, said FCA boss Sergio Marchionne.
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Fiat Chrysler considers a technical partnership with its South Korean rival Hyundai, according to a statement of CEO Serio Marchionne. The company shall be particularly interested in Hyundai’s H2 respective fuel cell systems.
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“We see a tipping point between the two in five to seven years, which will help balance our revenues.”
VW Group CEO Matthias Müller believes in a “good co-existence between combustion and electrified models”. And as he expects costs of batteries and other EV components to fall significantly in the upcoming years, so both could be equally profitable around 2023.
autocar.co.uk
Fiat Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne does not get tired to share his sceptical thoughts, doubting that electrification really makes sense. In his latest statement he says that the whole car industry – including Tesla – still has no “viable economic model for delivering an electric car”.
thestreet.com
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EU Commissioner Maros Sefcovic wants to join forces to establish a European battery production and thus invites representatives of the auto, chemistry and technology industry to a „battery summit“ in Brussels.
reuters.com
Fiat Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne states that governments like in France, Norway or the UK are somehow forcing his company to join the electrification path, but does not hide at all that he keeps on being sceptical.
bloomberg.com
A European Union spokeswoman denied a report in German Handelsblatt that cited EU sources as saying the European Commission wanted to set a quota for electric cars from 2025.
reuters.com
Ferrari president Sergio Marchionne does not plan to follow Formula 1 rival Mercedes in to Formula E with Ferrari, but he is open to entering another FCA brand but would not clarify which that might be.
autosport.com
Ferrari’s CEO Sergio Marchionne underlines the luxury brand’s interest to take part in the Formula E. That it will become a full FE manufacturer is unlikely though, at least until 2022 but Ferrari could enter in to a branding partnership with an existing team.
autosport.com
Auto industry legend Bob Lutz continues to doubt Tesla’s commercial viability but here for once shows some admiration and went as far as to say the Model S is “one of the best-looking full-size sedans ever.”
latimes.com
Hinrich J. Woebcken, CEO of Volkswagen’s North America, puts all his hopes on electric and autonomous vehicles after diesel gate. He hopes for a reallocation of former diesel budgets to hybrid and electric vehicles.
washingtonpost.com
Fiat Chrysler boss Sergio Marchionne has derived at similar conclusion like his colleague but remains reluctant in terms of electrification.
autoexpress.co.uk
Gerard Detourbet, a Renault-Nissan executive leading low-cost plug-in development, snubbed the U.S. reservation towards electrification, especially with President-elect Trump vowing to roll back previous measures. U.S. carmakers still invest in electric mobility – but mainly to keep up in China and not at home.
reuters.com
Fiat-Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne says that while the carmaker can develop a lot of technology in regards to electric powertrains on its own, many parts and especially the battery will come from others. “It’s really a question of capacity and access to that capacity,” he added.
autonews.com
Renault Sport boss Patrice Ratti says that performance hybrids and even a full EV model have a place in carmaker’s future line-up. But at this point, the cars would still be too heavy.
wheelsmag.com.au
Fiat-Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne might still not seem very enthusiastic about giving electric mobility a shot, but at least he no longer shuns the possibility. The carmaker is looking to launch a small electric city car followed by an electric Maserati in Europe.
bloomberg.com
Nissan’s European EV Director Gareth Dunsmore says the manufacturer is looking to build all its cars on a platform fit for electric drivetrains from the beginning, meaning new versions of today’s models could be electrified.
autocar.co.uk
Jay Leno, host of “Jay Leno’s Garage,” is one of the biggest car collectors. He owns no less than 286 vehicles, including a Tesla, which he defends against critics. Especially since media seems to focus more on failures than success.
insideevs.com
Audi’s head of development Stefan Knirsch confirms that the German automaker will make in-house build electric drivetrains one of its core competences. He does, however, not see the diesel engine as being dead quite yet.
autonews.com
Fiat Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne said in an Interview that a hybrid version of a topless LaFerrari Spider is in the pipelines. But pure EVs are still out of the question.
automobilemag.com
BMW CEO Harald Krüger says the company has enough qualified people to continue with its electric vehicle programme. Just recently, a handful of key staff had left BMW to join the EV start-up Future Mobility, which is financially backed by Chinese Foxconn.
euronews.com
Fiat Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne isn’t opposed to building a compact electric car if it makes sound business sense. 400,000 Tesla Model 3 have already been reserved, but Marchionne wants to wait until the cars are delivered before being convinced.
europe.autonews.com
Toyota chairman Takeshi Uchiyamada is known as the father of the Prius hybrid. Toyota is still struggling to push hydrogen cars, and Uchiyamada is reminded of the many troubles his Prius hybrid initially faced.
usatoday.com
The Tesla Model 3 may be making huge waves, but the real test, says Diarmuid O’Connell, Tesla Vice President of Business Development, is yet to come.
electrek.co (with video)
Fiat Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne is his usual self here, who puts electric cars not high on his agenda. However, the sceptic has come round to accept hybrids and predicts “most of the fleet to go hybrid by 2023.”
windsorstar.com
Honda Motor operating officer Toshihiro Mibe believes “diesel is not going to play a role at all” in lowering emission standards beyond 2020. By then, maybe hydrogen will.
reuters.com
Says Jia Yueting from LeTV, who went on to explain that the internet firm aims for the “creation of a brand new blueprint for city transport system” and not individual transport.
autonews.gasgoo.com
Sergio Marchionne, head of Fiat-Chrysler, said he met with Elon Musk and Tim Cook, the CEOs of Tesla and Apple. What exactly was discussed during the meeting was not revealed, but Marchionne praised Musk for his achievements.
reuters.com
Jochem Heinzmann, member of the Volkswagen Group Board of Management with responsibility for China, plans to kick off “the biggest emobility initiative in China’s automotive history”, investing 18m euros to develop new models and to add capacity at its factories there.
evfleetworld.co.uk
Ouyang Mingao, professor at Tsinghua University in Beijing, said that sales of electric and plug-in hybrid cars in China may top global sales charts this year, after already experiencing a major boom in 2014.
wantchinatimes.com
Volkswagen CEO Martin Winterkorn here comments on Apple’s and Google’s electric car projects which he seems to take seriously. However, he does trust that even the iPhone generation will opt for the right car from the right manufacturer in the end…
bloomberg.com
Sergio Marchionne, CEO of Fiat Chrysler Automobile, does welcome the competition from the computer world for the EV market as a whole but also sees Apple and Google as what they might become: guys to lose market share to or to run after.
bloomberg.com
Harald Kroeger, Mercedes’ VP of electronics and e-drive, believes a breakthrough in battery technology is near and could double EV range in about ten years time.
autoexpress.co.uk
Renault-Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn is not particularly impressed by Chevy’s 200-mile Bolt as Nissan is working on an EV with a similar range, he said. Looks like the Leaf will get a battery upgrade soon.
freep.com
Fiat Chrysler Automobiles CEO Sergio Marchionne is reaching out to fellow carmakers to share costs of research and development of new vehicles and technologies.
reuters.com
Formula E CEO Alejandro Agag is excited about future prospects of the electric racing series. Next year, the races will be open to manufacturers to take part with their own vehicles and technologies.
espnf1.com
Fiat-Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne, who will soon hand over the reigns, remains an EV sceptic. He has however, driven the electrification of some of the models and has just pushed the launch of the hybrid Chrysler mini-van forward a year.
insideevs.com
Anand Mahindra, Chairman and MD of the company of the same name, believes that all that is holding back EVs is the “perception that electric cars are only for the greens of the world.” This image however is changing with the Formula E and Tesla.
electricautosport.com
Panasonic Chief Executive Kazuhiro Tsuga on the substantial investment in Tesla’s Gigafactory of which Panasonic is one of the main partners.
online.wsj.com
These are the blunt words of Fiat-Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne, who had previously dubbed the selling of electric cars as “industrial masochism” he will personally try to avoid as much as possible.
caradvice.com.au
Ben Scott, analyst for IHS Automotive, still sees the EV market in its early stage. Even though “EV adoption (is) exceeding the historical precedent of hybrids,” he said, more EVs need to be offered to get on par with conventional cars.
press.ihs.com
Yoshio Ito, Panasonic’s senior managing executive officer, on a possible investment in Tesla’s Gigafactory. After the company had signed a letter of intend earlier this month, Panasonic has not yet disclosed how much it would invest.
online.wsj.com
Lu Guanqiu, chairman and founder Wanxiang Group which recently bought Fisker is determined to beat Tesla at home and abroad.
bloomberg.com
Fiat Chrysler Automobiles CEO Sergio Marchionne reassured reporters that Chrysler would meet the governement’s fuel economy targets for 2025 but would therefore need to electrify a large part of its offering.
autonews.com
Peter Wells, professor of business and sustainability at Cardiff Business School’s Centre for Automotive Industry Research, on Tesla’s plans for the Gigafactory.
online.wsj.com
“We see a tipping point between the two in five to seven years, which will help balance our revenues.”
“As much as I like Elon Musk, and he’s a good friend and actually he’s done a phenomenal job of marketing Tesla, I remain unconvinced of a … economic viability of the model that he’s pitching.”
“Our ambition is to create real production in the EU – a full value chain, including recycling.”
“Generally speaking, the Commission is looking into ways to promote use of low carbon energy and transport, but none of them includes quotas for electric cars.”
“Don’t get me wrong, what Musk has achieved, whether it is profitable or not, is incredible.”
“We are in front of the tipping point, I am 100 percent convinced.”
“Look to China rather than the U.S. for the future of electric cars. China is compelled to act – that’s the main difference.”
“A full-electric RS car, yes, it’s coherent with the strategy of Renault and the evolution of the market and we’re looking at the improvements of the batteries now, but it’s still not enough yet.”
“We’re leaders in crossovers and a leader with Leaf and we will combine those two in the future.”
“I’ve got a Model S P90D, it’s a fantastic car. I don’t understand why people attack this car. It is made in America, by Americans. It is built local. You know we are becoming like the British — we like noble failures more than we reward success. I don’t know why that is.”
“It may appear today as if all e-motors are the same, but they aren’t. They are at a development stage similar to where combustion engines were in the 1960s or ’70s.”
“R&D development of iNext will start now. And we have the people on board to do so.”
“It did not run. We applied all the engineering brain power we had. After 49 days, the day before Christmas, it finally ran. But only for 500 meters. We did not give up. Two years later in 1997, we introduced a breakthrough hybrid-powered vehicle called the Prius.”
“It’s a success as far as it is right now. The real success will be delivering a great product at the volumes are possible and necessary.”
“Electrification is costly technology to pursue, but manufacturing costs … are coming down fast and we will hit a point soon where costs for electrified cars will be cheaper than for diesel cars.”
“LeTV’s idea about car differs from that of Tesla.”
“In the near future, we will be offering Chinese customers an impressive choice of over 20 electric vehicles, from small cars to large sedans and SUVs, from plug-in hybrids to all-electric drives. We cannot allow the electric car to be a compromise on wheels. It has to be perfect in every way – technically mature, practical, safe and affordable.”
“We believe that sales of new energy cars will hit the 200,000 mark this year or next year, at latest. This will end the stage of introduction into the market and initiate rapid growth, at an annual clip of 5%-10%, boosting sales to an approximate 2 million cars by 2020.”
“If these two companies intend to solely produce electric vehicles, it could go fast.”
“There are literally thousands of scientists working on the problem. A breakthrough happened with lithium-ion technology not long ago when it wiped out nickel-hydride, and another one will come soon.”
“We are the leaders and we frankly intend to continue to be the leaders.”
“We think that next year we will have at least four or five manufacturers in the championship. Two years ago we didn’t have cars, we didn’t have venues, we didn’t have teams. We didn’t have sponsors or broadcasters. Today we have a championship going full-on with big fights between the drivers.”
“We think that plug in electrics have a very important role in the new eco system. If we just add that little touch of excitement which all vehicles purchases need to have, that emotion, that missing ingredient, I think we could be on the threshold of a real boom in electric cars.”
“Our policy is to avoid a situation where Tesla wants to make more cars but doesn’t have enough batteries.”
“The increasing variety of EVs and PHEVs is encouraging for the market, but there still needs to be more of these vehicles available to reach parity with internal combustion engine cars.”
“We will make sure to carry out investments one step at a time in line with demand.”
“I’ll put every cent that Wanxiang earns into making electric vehicles.”
“The danger there is if Tesla cannot make this work, the whole electric-vehicle sector will be set back a lot.”