Chrysler’s viability plan due with the US government next week would have the automaker viable even if US sales stay at current depressed levels for four years, vice chairman Jim Press has said.
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And it would be “a mistake” to assume that the plunge in US auto sales to an annual market of about 10m units is only an aberration, he said.
“We need to accept and come to grips with it,” Press said in a speech reported by Reuters from an Economic Club of Chicago lunch on the sidelines of the motor show in the ‘Windy City’.
US monthly sales rates have been running at roughly the 10m unit annual rate range for several months and January’s sales were at a 9.57m rate.
“We feel very good about our plan,” Press told Reuters after the speech. “We are confident that we are able to show our need and our requirements are going to be met. But we still have to work through the discussions with the different constituents.”
Press described Fiat’s contribution to Chrysler under a recent agreemeant as billions of dollars’ worth of platforms that would accelerate its entry into the small car market by five or six years.
“The basic viability plan does not have a specific partner,” he said.
Chrysler product development chief Frank Klegon had said earlier in the week it would be “a tough call” as to whether all of the automaker’s current plans for alliances on small cars would go forward.
“At some point, we will have to make some choices; do we move forward as a singular partner or is there still multiple partners along the way?” Klegon said.
