Mexican Media Brands
FCA Rules Out All-Aluminum Body for Jeep Wrangler
CEO Sergio Marchionne confirms Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV has decided against giving its next-generation 2017 model Jeep Wrangler SUV an aluminum unitized body.
#aluminum
Share
CEO Sergio Marchionne confirms Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV has decided against giving its next-generation 2017 model Jeep Wrangler SUV an aluminum unitized body.
Marchionne tells reporters the iconic Jeep will be able to achieve about the same desired fuel economy improvement by retaining a steel frame and adding an aluminum hood, doors and tailgate.
Switching to a unitized aluminum architecture would require an extensive overhaul of the Wrangler assembly plant in Toledo, Ohio. Marchionne floated the idea last autumn of such a project but declared it would be "outrageously" expensive to execute.
Reports last October indicated FCA might abandon an all-aluminum design. Marchionne confirms that bolting aluminum panels to a steel Wrangler body would be considerably easier to accomplish and result in significantly lower materials and manufacturing costs.
RELATED CONTENT
-
The Bollinger B1: An Electric Sport Ute
The Bollinger Motors B1 has been revealed.
-
Light Rider
When you think of the forthcoming LA Auto Show and Los Angeles in general, you may think of (1) very expensive, very large vehicles being piloted by very egotistical stars and (2) very jammed freeways full of the aforementioned, as well as numerous other vehicles of a less ostentatious variety.
-
Light Vehicles and How They Got That Way
The approach that is clearly being taken by engineers to create vehicles is to use the right materials in the right places. The time of a single dominant material is gone and unlikely ever to return.