When Bob Lutz introduced the Dodge Viper supercar to dealers more than a decade ago, he did so with a poem that included the couplet: “If Viper doesn’t turn your head, check your pulse … you may be dead!”
At the time, the third-biggest Detroit automaker needed a shot in the arm. But now it’s more in need of cash.
On Wednesday, Chrysler signaled the potential end of an era, indicating that its Viper sports car line could be sold as the company continues to spin off non-core assets.
The Auburn Hills automaker, a year into private ownership, announced in a statement that it is preparing to explore “strategic options for the Dodge Viper business.”
“We have been approached by third parties who are interested in exploring future possibilities for Viper,” Bob Nardelli, Chrysler CEO, said in a statement. “As the company evaluates strategic options to maximize core operations and leverage its assets, we have agreed to listen to these parties.”
Tata Motors has signed a development contract with Chrysler’s electric vehicle unit Global Electric Motorcars (GEM) to develop and market an electric version of the Ace for sale in the US.According to sources in the industry, the battery operated neighbourhood electric vehicle (NEV) that can ferry passengers and cargo has passed required safety and reliability tests, and the prototype is ready for production.
The vehicle, that will mark the auto major’s entry into the US markets, will be exported as a completely built unit sans engine or gear box. The American counterpart, that already produces and sells a range of six NEVs, will fit it with the motor and controller, the sources said, adding that the branding details had not yet been worked out.
TOKYO (Reuters) - Nissan Motor Co , Japan’s third-biggest automaker, is set to supply Chrysler LLC with fuel-efficient small cars, Japanese broadcaster NHK reported on Thursday.The two companies are in the final stages of negotiations on a deal for Nissan to supply Chrysler with a model with an engine displacement of around 1.8 liters, it said on its website.Nissan and Chrysler, which was acquired this year by Cerberus Capital Management LP , are in talks to supply cars, trucks and engines to each other, a source said last month.Nissan spokeswoman said negotiations with Chrysler are still ongoing and nothing has been decided.Both Nissan and Chrysler have similar original equipment manufacturing (OEM) deals with other carmakers aimed at saving development costs in an increasingly competitive industry.Over a year ago, Nissan and its French partner Renault SA broke off talks with General Motors Corp over a comprehensive three-way alliance.While Nissan-Renault Chief Executive Carlos Ghosn has said the alliance could still seek a U.S. partner in future, the discussions with Chrysler are on a smaller, product-by-product level, the source said.
Nissan officials have denied that the company has made such a decision, but in an interview in the latest issue of Newsweek magazine, the OEM’s chief executive, Carlos Ghosn, states that production of the company’s full-sized pick-up truck may be axed.
The 2008 Chrysler ecoVoyager Concept celebrates the romance of automobile travel embodied in a four-door, four-passenger distinctively American design. Designed for customers seeking elegance, simplicity and serenity, the elegant one-box design takes advantage of space normally occupied by a conventional powertrain setup. The 2008 Chrysler ecoVoyager features an advanced lithium-ion battery pack, along with a small, advanced hydrogen fuel cell that serves as a range extender. The result is a vehicle with a total range of more than 300 miles that emits no emissions from the tailpipe except water vapor.
With Chrysler LLC’s announcement last week of an additional 12,000 job cuts, the number of jobs to be eliminated from U.S. and Canadian automakers and their former parts arms in the second half of this decade has grown to 150,000 — and counting.
With buyouts or early retirement offers expected at all three Detroit automakers in the wake of new UAW contracts that allow new hires to get less in pay or benefits, the number is sure to grow soon.
And in the future, as the American automakers face competition from more and more rivals from low-cost countries, analysts say, more painful cuts will almost certainly follow. Just days after hourly workers ratified a new labor contract, Chrysler said it plans to nearly double the 13,000 job cuts it announced in February, now targeting the elimination of more than 25,000 hourly and salaried workers, or nearly one-third of its workforce.
Add the Chrysler cuts to the expected job cuts — at least 137,400 of them — already in the works at General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co. and its ACH unit, and Delphi Corp. between 2005 and 2009, and the total American job reductions rise to about 150,000. The total, derived from an analysis by the Center for Automotive Research earlier this year and subsequent company announcements, includes the 34,410 hourly buyouts and retirements at GM last year, and the more than 30,000 jobs eliminated at Ford since 2005 and the planned shutdowns and sell-offs of 35 Delphi and ACH plants.
That doesn’t include the thousands of jobs lost at other auto suppliers affected by the downsizing. And still, analysts, union officials and autoworkers say the pain isn’t over.
“We’ve been overbuilding for years and years, and now it’s catching up to us because we’re losing market share,” said Kenyon Hall, a 31-year-old assembly worker at Chrysler’s plant in Belvedere, Ill., where the automaker plans to eliminate a shift. “They waited too long to do something. Now it’s going to be painful for a while.”
Analysts expect that even the latest restructurings leave Detroit automakers larger than they will need to be in future. Continue reading →
DETROIT — Michigan’s troubled economy is taking another unwelcome hit as Chrysler LLC slashes as many as 12,100 jobs and eliminates four vehicle models.
The Auburn Hills-based automaker said Thursday that between 8,500 and 10,000 hourly jobs, 1,000 salaried jobs and about 1,100 contract positions would be cut through 2008.
“This is a shockingly big announcement. It’s not a good sign for Michigan,” said Sean McAlinden, chief economist at the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor.
McAlinden said Michigan will lose 5,000 hourly jobs and most of the 2,000 salaried and contract jobs in Chrysler’s latest downsizing.
Michigan has lost 285,000 net jobs since 2000, mainly because of the shrinking auto industry. The state has the highest unemployment rate in the nation at 7.5 percent.
“It’s not inconceivable that you could have a whole decade of (net) job losses in the state,” said University of Michigan economist Don Grimes.
Chrysler said it will stop building the Dodge Magnum, the convertible version of the Chrysler PT Cruiser, the Chrysler Pacifica and the Chrysler Crossfire by next year. None of those vehicles is built in Michigan.
Along with the discontinued models, the automaker said it is eliminating production shifts at five assembly plants, including second shifts at the Jefferson North Assembly Plant in Detroit and the Sterling Heights Assembly Plant. Shifts at both plants will be eliminated in the first quarter of 2008.
Each assembly plant shift employs roughly 1,000 workers. Chrysler said it expects to restore a second shift at Jefferson North in 2010 when it introduces two new sport-utility vehicles.
