As the economic downturn continues to impact hard on the automobile manufacturing sector worldwide, Fiat Group Vice-Chairman John Elkann has admitted in a newspaper interview today that it would be open to talks on the idea of a positive merger or partnership. "There are no proposals being studied but what is certain is that if opportunities present themselves and make sense industrially Fiat will not sit by and watch," Elkann was quoted as saying in the Italian daily newspaper La Repubblica this morning.

However Elkann, the grandson of former Fiat Group Chairman Gianni Agnelli, said that any merger plans were at present conjecture. "There are no concrete plans," he told the newspaper, saying that any shakeup in the car industry would depend on what financial assistance the American 'big three' (General Motors, Ford and Chrysler) obtain from their government. The heads of the US carmakers will appear before the US Congress again this week, as they seek state handouts of around US$25 billion, and with GM recently admitting to a US$2 billion cash burn a month and a belief that it will run out of money by the end of January. Fiat is "also suffering right now," added Elkann, saying that Fiat "could face even worse situations on its own."

The news comes just as the Italian new car market is reeling from a shocking November which saw a 29.46 pct year-on-year contraction in sales. The Italian market slump equated to 138,352 vehicles registered during November, compared to 196,125 units during the same month a year ago, and it is the biggest year-on-year monthly fall since 1993. After the first 11 months of the year the Italian new car market has lost 13.40 pct with 2.018 million units sold so far. Fiat Group lost 28.46 pct year-on-year in November although this did allow the national carmaker to raise its total market share from 30.96 to 31.49 pct.