Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) is turning the corner in Europe and may break even in the region at an operating level ahead of schedule as a focus on premium vehicles for export is starting to pay off, a media report said.
FCA was hit by a six-year slump in car sales in Europe, from which the region is only slowly recovering and this forced FCA to increasingly rely on its US operations for profit, Reuters noted.
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“In 2015, we could break even at the operating level (in Europe),” CEO Sergio Marchionne said at the Detroit show. FCA had forecast its European operations – which in 2013 posted an operating loss of EUR520m (US$613m) – arresting losses in 2016.
FCA earlier this week announced some good news for its Melfi plant workers as sales of the Jeep Renegade and Fiat 500X take off.
Recovery in Europe is part of a bigger goal to spend EUR48bn ($56.73bn) over five years to 2018 to boost FCA’s global sales by 60% to 7m cars and increase net profit fivefold, the news agency said.
Marchionne has promised to fill all of FCA’s seven car assembly plants in Italy and bring back all workers from the layoff schemes by the time the five-year investment plan is completed.
However, analysts have called some of Marchionne’s targets too ambitious.
