AD_MAGAZINE_352

53 AutoData | February 2019 2017 2009 2008 2007 Fiat 964 767 6,1% 943 202 6,5% 1 010 342 6,9% 767 670 5% Lancia 121 994 0,8% 114 035 0,8% 121 846 0,8% 60 620 0,4% Jeep 45 539 0,3% 32 597 0,2% 18 778 0,1% 107 569 0,7% Alfa Romeo 144 404 0,9% 102 183 0,7% 110 827 0,8% 86 805 0,6% Brand Sales Share Sales Share Sales Share Sales Share Year FCA brands’ sales pre and post crisis x today – Europe 2017 2016 2014 2007 Fiat 18 447 0,4% 68 090 0,4% 12 699 0,1% 2 273 0% Jeep 318 0% - - 133 009 0,6% 202 755 0,8% Brand Sales Share Sales Share Sales Share Sales Share Year FCA brands’ sales before and after FCA – China Source: CarSaleBase Source: CarSaleBase. Fiat was absent from the Chinese market from 2008 to 2011; the Jeep was absent from 2008 to 2014. 38% of the light commercial vehicles ma- rket. Although Fiat has lost the market lea- dership, since FCA disputes inch by inch with GM to reach the first place but with much more average ticket vehicles than before. Considering the sum of Fiat and Chrysler vehicles, it won in 2015 and 2016 and lost in 2017 and 2018, but always by a narrow margin: last year, for example, it was only 1,3 thousand units behind. If in 2015 Palio was by far the most sold FCA’s car, with 122,4 thousand units, in 2018, the pair of Jeep SUVs, Renega- de and Compass, surpassed the range of 100 thousand units for the first time by registering 106,6 thousand models. As a comparison, Fiat’s best-selling entry car was Mobi, with 49,5 thousand. No other reason shortly before his de- ath, in July 2018, Marchionne left an in- vestment plan in the region much more aggressive for the Jeep and RAM brands than for Fiat, Filosa said: “For Jeep, we are developing an SUVwhichwill complement the line and for Fiat the plan is to launch up to three SUVs and a pickup truck so the brand dispute or strengthen its position in the segments of greater potential”. All of that happens because the plant in Goiana, PE, is aperfect portrait of the strategy change since FCA’s birth: whatwould initially be a Fiat compact car plant in the port of Suape turned out to be a Jeep house. Inaugurated in April 2015, it started pro- ducing only Renegade, which won Fiat Toro as its companion in February 2016 and Compass in October the same year. It clo- sed 2017with 179 thousand cars produced and rose to 202 thousand in 2018 – since that March operating in three shifts. Goiana already represents about 40% of FCA production in Brazil, 930 cars per day. It employs 13,6 thousand people, with the factory itself and another 16 auto parts companies. The projection for 2019 is to reach the maximum production capacity, 250 thousand/year.