Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne is targeting the doubling of production volumes of Fiat Auto's Alfa Romeo and Lancia brands to 300,000 vehicles each by 2010. On the sidelines of a meeting with the unions yesterday he stated that the objective of Fiat Auto would be the "doubling production of both Alfa and Lancia vehicles by 2010."

This tough objective can be realised by "taking into the accounts the investments made," said Marchionne. "We have agreed with trade unions to produce 300,000 vehicles under the Lancia brand and 300,000 more under the Alfa brand in the medium-term and by 2010," he added. He continued to state that the focus now would be firmly on Fiat Auto's two specialist brands, Alfa Romeo (which represents premium-category 'sporty' cars) and Lancia (which is now focused on providing exclusive cars to and 'upmarket' audience). He explained that "Alfa and Lancia are the two brands which require more efforts; people already like the Fiat brand which has its own stable market share."

This year the Alfa Romeo business unit is targeting raising production to 180,000 units, up from the 126,000 it sold last year. To the end of May this year Alfa Romeo had shifted 68,815 cars, up by 9.7 percent year-on-year. The arrival of four exciting new models during the course of the last year, the Alfa 159, 159 Sportwagon, Brera and Spider (the last mentioned went on sale in Italy earlier this month) has transformed their range. Earlier this month it was revealed that the Alfa 159 has racked up 50,000 orders already since going on sale in Italy in late September.
 

These four new models are complemented by the venerable C-segment Alfa 147 hatchback which has recently been repositioned, and is due to be replaced within the time span (in 2008) of the increased sales targets by the Alfa 149, a new model that has been very carefully developed for sometime.

Lancia meanwhile expects to beat its 2005 total of 114,000 vehicles sales, despite losing one model from its range mid last year (the Lybra). Niche versions of the Ypsilon model (including the MomoDesign) have helped the brand achieve 56,115 sales this year to the end of May, up 1.7 pct year-on-year. While a new C-segment model, dubbed the "new HPE", has been confirmed and will arrive on the market next year, Marchionne said they are currently working on the Lancia range.

Hitting both these targets will keep Fiat Auto on course to achieve its target of keeping its Italian market share above 30 percent and hitting 8 percent across Europe. "Producing 300,00 Lancia vehicles and 300,000 Alfa vehicles would mean exceeding a 8pct market share in Europe and a 30pct share in Italy," he commented.