Fiat is in deep discussion about two new alliances with other carmakers and could finalise a new deal in Europe by the end of June, reports Italian daily Il Sole 24 Ore. The paper has reported Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne as saying, “The chapter is not closed. (Alliances in Europe) could materialise within the first half.”

Ever since Marchionne took over as Fiat CEO and unpinned the restrictive, all-embracing alliance that had previously been forged with General Motors, he has embarked on a policy of involving Fiat in new strategic alliances fitted to a particular requirement; it is a direction that has proved very successful in helping Fiat Auto to move forward.

His recent alliances include a deal with India’s Tata Motors, in which joint production, purchasing, and research and development co-operation are all areas being addressed under the terms of the agreement. Fiat are also slated to build the new 500 model in conjunction with Ford Europe, the latter using the car’s Panda-based architecture to underpin their next-generation Ka model. With Suzuki, Fiat Auto has licensed production of their Multijet turbodiesel engine; meanwhile the successful new Sedici is built at the Japanese carmaker’s Hungarian factory and badged as a Fiat. Moreover, to tackle the rapidly expanding Russian market, Fiat Auto has teamed up with the country’s most ambitious carmaker, Severstal Auto, to start production of a range of passenger and commercial vehicles including the Palio, Albea, Doblò and Ducato. Finally, a joint venture deal with Nanjing Auto in China has been supplemented by a deal to source engines from Chery Automotive. A long-running alliance with PSA Peugeot-Citroën in the area of light commercial vehicles and MPVs has also been broadened. There are no firm suggestions as to which specific areas the two proposed new alliances could address, although the media has been full of much speculation.
 

However, with Marchionne (currently at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit) this week vowing to achieve his 2010 targets, a raft of new niche market models are due to arrive and building any of them in tandem with another carmaker would help to keep project costs down. Marchionne has several times recently been very keen to stress that alliances have brought significant savings in R&D and the manufacturing processes.

Discussing the new ‘Small’ platform with Automotive News Europe in December, he said: “We have discussions going on, not just in connection with this. To the extent that I own the platform and want to allow people to come onto the platform and do things with us, I am also willing to go onto theirs. We have already seen the benefits of this sharing with the mini architecture. It was born for the Panda and planned in 200,000 units a year.  With the new 500 and the other model (the Ford Ka successor), we will reach 400,000 units a year.”

Fiat are also proud of the ‘Compact’ platform which underpins the new Bravo, a car which is due in the showrooms in a few weeks time, and which will also support the Delta HPE, set to be commercialised in 2008, and then the Alfa 149, a year later. Based on the outgoing C-segment Stilo’s platform, Fiat Auto has previously said this architecture could be shared with other carmakers.  The area of strategic alliances is not just restricted to Fiat, as Alfa Romeo is expected to share the floorpan of its forthcoming Grande Punto-based coupé, codenamed ‘Junior’, with another firm.