FCA’s 5-Year Plan Focuses On Alfa Romeo, Jeep, Maserati, Ram Brands

The five-year strategic plan through 2022 unveiled today by Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV ignores the company’s iconic Chrysler and Dodge brands.

Those brands are likely to shrink but not disappear. FCA will devote most of its new-product spending on four fast-growing marques: Alfa Romeo, Jeep, Maserati and Ram.

CEO Sergio Marchionne, who will retire in 2018, says the carmaker will add a midsize Ram pickup truck, a three-row Jeep Grand Cherokee SUV and a midsize Maserati luxury crossover vehicle. He adds that much of the company’s lineup will be electrified by 2022.

FCA targets Alfa sales of 400,000 units annually, down from the ambitious 700,000-unit goal touted in the company’s 2014 plan. By 2022, Alfa will drop its MiTo minicar, update the current Giulia sport sedan and Stelvio sporty crossover, debut a GTV sports car and add an all-new larger crossover model. The brand also will get longer-wheelbase versions of most existing models.

Maserati will add an all-wheel-drive, high-performance plug-in hybrid sport coupe and convertible to replace the current GranTurismo. The brand also will add a midsize plug-in hybrid crossover and revamp its Levante luxury crossover and Quattroporte sport sedan.

FCA, the only major carmaker without its own captive finance unit in the U.S., plans to set up such an affiliate within five years. The carmaker says it will do so either by building the unit from scratch or buying out its existing partner, Spain’s Santander Consumer USA Holdings Inc.