Fiat Chrysler CEO says 2018 targets unaffected by diesel troubles
VENICE: Fiat Chrysler Automobiles does not expect its diesel problems in the United States to have an impact on its short-term business targets to 2018, Chief Executive Sergio Marchionne said on Friday.
The US Justice Department sued FCA last month, accusing the Italian-American automaker of illegally using software to bypass emission controls in 104,000 diesel vehicles sold since 2014, in a move that could potentially lead to heavy fines.
The company has proposed a software update as part of certifying 2017 diesel models to allow them to go on sale and then use that fix to update the 104,000 vehicles on the road.
Asked whether it could take months to get US authority approval for the software fix, as suggested by a US Justice Department lawyer this week, Marchionne said “we are much closer than this”.
“When we made the proposal, we were ready to implement the fix immediately... now it depends on them,” Marchionne told journalists on the sidelines of a meeting in Venice of the US-Italy council. “We are talking to them... we think we have a viable solution.”
He said the company had not made any provisions for any potential fines, adding it was “impossible to try estimate”.
Part of the 2018 business plan, which is centred around the revamp of its Jeep, Maserati and Alfa Romeo brands, is erasing all debt and accumulating at least $4.5 billion of cash by end of next year.
After failing to strike a much sought alliance for FCA, Marchionne has made executing the 2018 plan his core ambition before he steps down at the end of his tenure early in the following year.