We are at a Fiat 500 EV event. Some of the information (the most important things, like price! are still embargoed, but I’ve got some folks that can answer the questions that aren’t embargoed. Top on the list is Nicole Longhini product manager for 500e! Ask any questions you want and we’ll answer the ones [...]
Timothy Kuniskis, recently named President and CEO of the Dodge Brand, is the former head of the FIAT Brand for North America. Before he left Fiat, Kuniskis talked to Lou Ann Hammond, CEO, www.drivingthenation.com about the 2013 Fiat 500E. Fiat gives you two options, buy or lease. The Fiat 500E goes on sale this summer, [...]
In January, 2013, at the Detroit auto show I interviewed Anthony Pratt, Director of Forecasting, Polk of America. I asked Pratt about Europe, what Polk was forecasting for 2013 and beyond for Western, Eastern and Central Europe. Polk has a downside scenario and an upside scenario. Would Germany going into a recession be in the [...]
Los Angeles, CA -Tim Kuniskis, head of the Fiat brand in North America, talked to Lou Ann Hammond, CEO, www.drivingthenation.com at the 2012 Los Angeles auto show. In 2011 fiat sold fewer than 20,000 units. According to Automotive News, Fiat sold 3,603 in November, 2012, an increase of 123% over last November. Year-to-date for 2012 [...]
Los Angeles, CA – Lou Ann Hammond, CEO, www.drivingthenation.com, talked to John Batchelor radio show host about the Los Angeles auto show and the parties before it. Hammond took time out from a Ford party, at Universal Studios, where professional rally driver Ken Block was drifting in a 2014 Ford Fiesta ST. California is critical [...]
Sao Paulo, Brazil (Brasil) – Car companies in Europe are shutting production plants, China’s economy is slowing. CEOs from car companies, such as General Motor’s CEO, Dan Akerson, and the Chairman of the Board of Management (CEO) of Volkswagen AG, Martin Winterkorn, are happy to be attending an auto show in Brazil. Lamborghini’s President and [...]
The three tenors were not Italian, two of them were Spanish, but the idea of the three tenors came from an Italian man. Two of the three engines are not American, one of the transmissions is Korean, but the idea is headed by the Italian conductor, Sergio Marchionne. Dave Schmidt, the Chief engineer for the [...]
At a lunch in September, 2012, Fiat SpA Chief Executive Officer Sergio Marchionne talked to a group of journalists about the disagreement between Volkswagen AG and Fiat. Lou Ann Hammond, www.drivingthenation.com, was one of those journalists. The problems that Marchionne talks about in this video are being talked about at the 2012 Paris auto show. [...]
I’m sitting in the airport editing the Sergio Marchionne video, “I wouldn’t be Don Quixote” Marchionne quips. The guys around me have flights that are delayed, as I do, so we’ve gotten to know each other in a simpatico friendship kind of way. Hey guys, if I said to you I didn’t want to be [...]
Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne (pronounced Mar-key-OWN-ee) is also the CEO of Chrysler Group, which includes Chrysler, Dodge, Ram, Mopar and Jeep. Currently ownership of the Chrysler Group is: Fiat S.p.A. 58.5 percent, VEBA 41.5 percent. On July 3, 2012, Fiat announced that it intends to exercise a call option to acquire an additional 3.3 percent of [...]
2013 MINI Paceman
2013 Ford Explorer Sport
2012 Fiat 500 Gucci
2012 Chrysler 300
2013 BMW 328