Chrysler expects to double its international sales to about 400,000 vehicles within five years and remains open to partnerships to increase sales and reduce development costs, a senior executive said at Geneva.
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Vice chairman and president, Jim Press, told Reurters the ‘BRIC’ countries of Brazil, Russia, India and China offered growth opportunities for Chrysler.
According to the report, Press, who said last week that forecasts for a recovery in the US in the second half of 2008 were “wishful thinking,” also said Chrysler had not made any plans to cut its North American production, though it continued to watch the market closely after cutting back some production late in 2007.
“We were ahead of the game and anticipated this market before others did and made some adjustments to our production schedule early on,” Press told Reuters. “If the market continues to get more challenging, if the headwinds pick up, than we will re-evaluate,” he said.
“The entire year of 2008 will be a character-building year,” Press was quoted as saying.
He called the slowdown in the US economy overall a short-term headwind that will result in some pent-up demand in the longer term.
“It’s not that kind of a severe recession that is going to be a drag on other economies, it is more of a localised flu that we will get through in the United States,” Press said.
