Fiat, the Italian carmaker is looking towards China for a partner to assist in the manufacture of the Chrysler Jeep brand in the largest car market in the world. This was confirmed by Fiat and Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne last Saturday.
The plan of Chrysler is to produce 100,000 new Chrysler Jeeps in China. This is key to attain the Fiat goal of selling 300,000 vehicles per year in China by 2014.
Currently, Fiat has a joint venture partnership with Guangzhou Automobile Group called GAC-Fiat to manufacture Fiat vehicles in China. Previously, Jeep was being produced until 2006 right before Chrysler spun off from Daimler AG, resulting in the brand falling behind in terms of market presence and sales in China.
Marchionne said, "In China, we have a good partner and we have the possibility to use a second one to develop Jeep." He added that there are no current discussions being done by Chrysler to find a partner for Jeep in China. He did clarify that 'there have been a number of expressions of interest."
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