Chrysler will stop sourcing diesel engines from Volkswagen.
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Chrysler development head Frank Klegdon told auto motor und sport magazine that Chrysler currently buys diesel engines from Mercedes, VM Motori and VW. He said the contract with VW will shortly come to an end and will not be renewed. “We want to consolidate our suppliers,” said Klegdon.
Last year Chrysler sourced 40,000 diesel engines from Volkswagen, around 43,000 from Mercedes and 55,000 from VM Motori. According to the magazine, the Volkswagen volume will be switched to Mercedes.
Klegdon said that, despite the separation of Chrysler and Daimler, Cerberus wants to allow Mercedes and Chrysler to continue to cooperate.
“We will continue the good cooperation with Mercedes in the future, in the area of fuel cells, diesel engines and gasoline engine development, amongst other things. We will continue to use Mercedes’ developments in terms of electronics and advanced safety,” he said.
Klegdon added that the cooperation and joint use of components is still quite close on certain models.
“We won’t share any complete vehicle architectures with Mercedes, but models such as the next generation Jeep Grand Cherokee and Mercedes M-Class will share components, such as axles. We consider components that we can share on a case by case basis. Sunroofs are an example of a component that we purchase jointly globally,” he said.
