Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV could simply electrify their Ram pickup trucks if they face a deterioration in their market share, CEO Mike Manley said Friday, offering updates on product launch plans that have suffered delays due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Italian-American automaker said it would electrify its high-profit Jeep logo until 2022, but overall it has been slow to adopt electric and mom-to-vehicle cars in their Ram vans. Meanwhile, competition such as General Motors Co., Ford Motor Co., Tesla Inc. and Plymouth-based startup Rivian Automotive Inc. will deploy electric trucks in the coming months and years.
“The explanation for why we haven’t talked a lot about electric pickups is not because we consider that this market doesn’t exist,” Manley said during an effects call in response to an analyst’s question. “But we’ve had a slightly different view of adoption times and rates, especially in North America in terms of total electrification. We are very committed to our electrification strategy, the maxim of which has been revealed.
“We haven’t revealed everything. But obviously, vans are a key franchise for us, and we’re not going to get away if there’s a threat that our position will be diluted in the future.”
Ram has a building in place this year, but a battery. The new Ram TRX, a functional pickup, will stop this quarter and production will begin in the fourth quarter in Sterling Heights.
For now, Fiat Chrysler is focusing on electrification in North America, starting with the Wrangler 4xe plug-in hybrid SUV. More important points will be made this quarter after the vehicle is presented in January at CES in Las Vegas. Production will begin in the fourth quarter in Toledo with cars in the showrooms until the end of the year.
Jeep is also preparing a series of new releases over the next year, the main points of its electrification plans are not yet available.
A new full-size three-row unnamed SUV scheduled to be unveiled until the end of 2020 at the new Fiat Chrysler meeting facility on the east side of Detroit at the former Site of the Mack Avenue Engine Complex. Production is expected to begin in the first quarter of next year. The vehicle is expected to give Jeep access to 60% of the giant SUV market, with the two-row Grand Cherokee accessible by only 40%, Manley said.
Production of the Jeep Wagoneer and Grand Wagoneer SUVs will begin this 2021 quarter in Warren. The trucking plant closed in late June for 14 weeks of refurbishment and will reopen in October. The Wagoneer was sold in the past between the 1963 and 1993 style years.
“These three cars will enter high-margin segments that we don’t play in today,” Manley said of the new Jeeps.
In the third quarter of 2021, the fifth-generation Grand Cherokee will enter production. Workers at the new Detroit plant and adjacent Jefferson North Assembly facility will manufacture the Jeep SUV. The Grand Cherokee was last redesigned in 2011.
The Fiat Chrysler plant in Toluca, Mexico, also closed this month for 4 weeks to prepare for a mid-cycle refreshment of the Jeep Compass crossover.
This year, the Maserati luxury logo is refreshing the Quattroporte sedan, the Levante SUV and the Ghibli sports car. The Italian logo will also launch the new MC20 supercar on September 9 at the Maserati Day investor event.
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