Marchionne Signals Shift in FCA’s Product Plan

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV is adjusting its five-year, €48 billion ($52 billion) product plan as hopes for a merger with an uninterested General Motors Co. fade.

CEO Sergio Marchionne tells shareholders the company’s Jeep SUV brand will take a central role in the updated strategy. At the same time, several planned models for the company’s other brands are likely to be delayed, sources tell Bloomberg News.

Marchionne has given up on his proposal to merge FCA with GM after being rebuffed twice. He says he won’t try to launch a hostile bid to force a union. In the meantime, the lack of a rich partner means FCA must manage its spending carefully, Bloomberg points out. The news service notes the company's spending plans are hampered by €7.8 billion ($8.5 billion) in industrial debt.

Marchionne says he will present a revised plan in January that is likely to dial back on the ambitious targets he unveiled more than a year ago. Those goals included dozens of new models—eight alone to help relaunch the troubled Alfa Romeo brand—that would fuel a 50% leap in sales to 7 million units by 2018.

Bloomberg’s sources say several models in the original plan are now being delayed. Among them: a Maserati sports car and an all-new SUV and large sedan for Alfa Romeo.