Fiat Group has officially confirmed John Elkann as the new Chairman is a very short statement while reports have emerged that Luca di Montezemolo quit after disagreements agreements over the future direction of the carmaker.

In a surprisingly short statement, in fact just two sentences long, issued by the Fiat Group this morning in Turin, it read: "The Board of Directors of Fiat, which met today in Turin, has elected John Elkann as Chairman of the Company. The Board of Directors expressed their regret at Mr. Montezemolo’s resignation and thanked him for his service to the Group during what has been an extremely challenging period." Elkann was appointed Vice-Chairman of Fiat Group in 2004 when Montezemolo was also drafted in as Chairman. Elkann is also the Chairman of the Agnelli family's holding company, Exor.

Automotive News in a report quoting three inside sources said Montezemolo quit the top job after disagreeing with Fiat Group CEO Sergio Marchionne over the future direction of the Italian domestic giant. Last year Fiat was given a 20 percent stake in failed US carmaker Chrysler Group, in exchange for supplying its smaller and efficient technology and platform as well as taking full management control. While the US government bought into the plan laid out by Marchionne to restore the company's faded fortunes most industry insiders have been skeptical about the chances of Chrysler making a worthwhile recovery and while Fiat Group has thus far been reasonably isolated from any possible future collapse of Chrysler Group, the new strategy that will be unveiled today could pin the two carmakers' fortunes irreversibly together. AN adds that Montezemolo, who will remain President of the Group's Ferrari division, is likely to pursue a new career in politics.

Meanwhile John Elkann, the grandson of the late Fiat Chairman Gianni Agnelli, steps up to the Chairmanship's role to accept his biggest task yet. Born in New York in 1976, John Elkann obtained a scientific Baccalaureat at the State School Lycee Victor Duruy in Paris, and graduated in Industrial Engineering at the Politecnico University in Turin. While at university, he gained work experience in various companies within the Fiat Group, in manufacturing in UK and Poland and in sales and marketing in France. He started his career in 2001 at General Electric as a member of the Corporate Audit Staff, with assignments in Asia, the US and the EU. In 2003 he joined Agnelli holding company IFIL (now merged with IFI to form Exor) and worked on the relaunch plan of Fiat Group, of which he became Vice Chairman in 2004 after being a full board member since December 1997. He is also Chairman of Editrice La Stampa and Itedi, Board member of RCS Mediagroup, Le Monde, The Economist Group and Banca Leonardo. John Elkann is an active member of his community, serving as Vice Chairman of: the Italian Aspen Institute; the Italy-China Foundation; the Giovanni Agnelli Foundation.