Only six big automakers would emerge from the current credit crisis, Fiat CEO Segio Marchionne has said.
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His own company is too small to survive alone, he was quoted as saying on an auto industry trade newspaper’s website.
“By the time we finish with this in the next 24 months, as far as mass-producers are concerned, we’re going to end up with one American house, one German of size; one French-Japanese, maybe with an extension in the US; one in Japan; one in China and one potential European player,” Marchionne said.
“The only way for companies to survive is if they make more than 5.5m cars per year,” Marchionne added.
Only Toyota, General Motors, Volkswagen, Ford and Renault-Nissan operate on that scale, the paper noted.
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By GlobalDataThe UAW said on Sunday it would consider a Chrysler alliance with a rival if it helped save jobs while a German magazine said Tata Motors was considering closer cooperation with Daimler.
Even Toyota has set up an emergency committee to look at more ways of cutting cost to avoid further profit forecast cuts, Reuters noted.
The news agency said the Nikkan Kogyo newspaper reported on Monday that Toyota was considering cutting capital expenditure next fiscal year (from 1 April) by 30-40% after last month cutting its annual operating profit forecast by a trillion yen.
Meanwhile, Swedish daily Dagens Industri on Monday quoted an unidentified source as saying the Swedish government was expected to offer loans and loan guarantees worth several billion Swedish crowns to Volvo Cars and Saab Automobile, both of which are likely to be sold by Ford and General Motors, respectively.
Fiat is no stranger to alliances, having shared some engine development and production with GM until recently. It currently operates two Europen light commercial plants and shares van model lines with PSA and also shares a small MPV built in Hungary by Suzuki’s European unit.
