Fiat Group is actively pursuing ambitious plans to manufacture the Fiat 500 in the United States and is seeking an industrial partner for the project, CEO Sergio Marchionne revealed yesterday.

Fiat Group is actively pursuing ambitious plans to manufacture the Fiat 500 in North America and is seeking an industrial partner for the project, CEO Sergio Marchionne revealed yesterday. "We are examining ways and means to manufacture the cars in the United States," Marchionne told reporters on the sidelines of a conference in Venice.

Marchionne is already pursuing a strategy to start manufacturing at least one Alfa Romeo model in North America from 2011-2012, with an array of options currently being evaluated. Alfa Romeo is building towards its relaunch, and with the present levels of currency exchange he sees it as vital that at least one model is manufactured stateside.

Talks over a stateside Alfa Romeo production facility have recently been revealed to be ongoing with the US's third biggest carmaker, Chrysler, while the Canadian province of Ontario is aggressively pushing to be the location of the factory. Marchionne suggested that the 500 could be launched at the same time as Alfa Romeo, meaning a 2011-2012 timescale, although he said that it would most likely be built at a different location.

On Friday Marchionne admitted that he had plans that would also see the Fiat 500 being built in the US, revealing in an interview that he is actively working on the proposal; and building on comments that he has made in the last year to that end. "I don't want to bring it over made," he said yesterday. "I want to manufacture in the NAFTA area," he added. NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) comprises of the United States, Canada and Mexico.

The Fiat 500 has proved to be a huge success with customers since it was launched exactly a year ago, around 250,000 examples have been ordered already and it was a clear winner of the highly prestigious Car of the Year 2008 award. Fiat withdrew from the US new car market a quarter of a century ago, and does in fact have a historic record of building vehicles stateside: it established a factory in Poughkeepsie, New York, in 1906, although production only lasted a few years.

Marchionne was cautious though about his US plans for the Fiat 500, commenting that although "there is a certain charm about making the 500 in the United States," Fiat wouldn't go ahead unless a sound business case could be produced. He also said that the 500 would only arrive once the full range of model derivatives was completed: a convertible and estate version are currently in the planning stages. Fiat spokesman Gualberto Ranieri said that they would be looking very closely at Smart, which is being launched in the United States this year. Marchionne added he was in "very quiet" talks with prospective partners, and hinted that further news could be announced this year.