How to get the worst options from a good idea. Fiat-Chrysler Boss Marchionne demonstrates it.
(Based on a fortune.com article dated April 15.4.2016, XNUMX)
The TESLA Model III will never cover costs - and if it does, we will copy the idea and bring a competitor within 12 months.
This is the freely translated creed with FCA boss Sergio Marchionne about the advances by electric car pioneer Tesla. And if the setting weren't so grossly negligent, you could just pull back with a bag of popcorn and listen to the phrases of aging automobile bosses, while on the other side of the Atlantic, over there in the new world, the clocks of the automotive era are just being reset.
Generate profit
Automobile companies are not holiday parks. And in the end there doesn't have to be a black zero, but a profit. Fiat boss Sergio Marchionne took - looking back - an equally risky path. He bought Chrysler. And from two malfunctioning automobile manufacturers, a group was to emerge that would shudder in Toyoda City and Wolfsburg. So far, the success has been manageable. It is probably a classic tactic to distract from your own problems and point to others. And sound smart and wise at the same time. Especially since Marchionne's allusion to the delay in delivery of the Tesla Model S:
"... but you have then to build and deliver them .."
for a company whose plans are also shifting every year may seem completely inappropriate.
Because while TESLA is moving ahead and bringing an e-car onto the market in addition to a vision and the charging network at the same time, FCA was bogged down in a strategy of new models and a brand revival. The revival of the cult brand Alfa Romeo predicted by Marchionne is still a long way off. And the goal of saving the Lancia brand from ruin by relabelling Chrysler models, well, that too unfortunately went very badly. So you shouldn't point to the “delivery problems” of others if you can't do better yourself.
That at FCA you didn't have to close the doors, previously a Ferrari success, but now of all times a success of the US subsidiary. Which was able to assert itself in a US market that had strengthened again after the recession, with classic pick-ups of the Dodge brand and the Jeep portfolio.
Sure - in the meantime, the collaborations and required synergies of brand merging are also beginning to bear fruit. Above all, the compact SUV models, which are now produced by all brands.
haughtiness comes before the event
If (Musk) "can show me that the car will be profitable at that price, I will copy the formula, add the Italian design flair and get it to the market within 12 months," Marchionne
and
Asked if he thinks FCA is late in the race to electrification, Marchionne replied: "better late than sorry."
Source: autonews.com
This form of pride may have worked in the automotive industry for the past 100 years. But the days when techniques could be copied quickly are coming to an end. Today you have to have visions and realize them. FCA is as far from that as Lancia is from a renaissance. And it doesn't matter whether you like it or not. The lead that TESLA is gaining today cannot be made up with a “me too tactic”. “Better late than sorry” is a principle that will no longer lead to success.
The half-heartedness with which FCA is approaching the transformation of mobility for tomorrow is frightening. At the moment of the current low fuel prices and the still relatively unpunished CO2 emissions, Marchionne the Chrysler Pick-UPs are saving the “earnings” for FCA. To believe that he could later achieve the e-car “turn-around” within 12 months would be a tragic misjudgment.
The “Fiat-owned” e-car efforts were so successful that the E-FIAT 500, which was sold in small series, only found its way to California and Sergio Marchionne had a “good tip” for those interested: “Don't buy it” . Which was solely due to the fact that the E-Fiat 500 costs the company money that it cannot bring in. After all, Sergio Marchionne is consistent ...