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Hybrid and Electric Jeeps, Fiats, and Alfa Romeos to be built in Poland

WARSAW - Fiat Chrysler will invest more than $200 million in its plant in Tychy in Poland, where new hybrid and electric Jeep, Fiat and Alfa Romeo models will be built, Deputy Prime Minister Jaroslaw Gowin said on Tuesday. The investment comes as a boost to emerging Europe's largest economy, which is hoping a switch to electric vehicles can help its auto sector catch up with regional rivals including the Czech Republic and Slovakia. "Modern, hybrid and electric cars of the Jeep, Fiat and Alfa Romeo brands will start to leave the factory in Tychy in 2022," Gowin wrote on Twitter. Gowin said there could be further investment in the plant in future but gave no details. Fiat Chrysler, which is planning a $38 billion merger with French rival PSA to create the world's No.4 carmaker, said in a statement that early preparations for the expansion and modernization of the plant started in late 2020. The plant in Poland's industrial southern region of Silesia is one of the company's largest and currently employs around 2,500 people. Fiat Chrysler confirmed that new hybrid and electric Jeep, Fiat and Alfa Romeo models would be built in Tychy. It said the aim was to start mass production of the first of the three new passenger car models for the group's brands in the second half of 2022. Under a 2018-2022 plan, FCA pledged to invest 9 billion euros in electrification as part of investment plans totaling 45 billion euros. (Reporting by Alan Charlish and Agnieszka Barteczko in Warsaw, Silvia Recchimuzzi in Gdansk; editing by Jason Neely and Susan Fenton) Auto News Government/Legal Green Plants/Manufacturing Alfa Romeo Fiat Jeep Green Automakers Electric Future Vehicles Hybrid

Ram and Alfa Romeo top J.D. Power study of best automaker websites

Imagining a new car can be terrific fun, especially if the new car is an Alfa Romeo. So say the fantasy engineers at the J.D. Power agency, who’ve found that Alfa and Ram, sister brands under the Stellantis umbrella, offer potential buyers the most attractive consumer websites, which are often their first viable encounter with those vehicles. Power found that those marques lead the mass market and premium categories in its twice annual Manufacturer Website Evaluation Study. In the premium segment, Alfa Romeo led with 755 points, up six points over BMW, 10 points ahead of Infiniti, 14 points past of Jaguar, and 18 points up on Porsche. By contrast, Volvo and Audi trail the pack with 689 points, and are behind Genesis (699 points), Tesla (720), and Cadillac (721), all of which perform worse than the premium segment average of 724 points. The summerÂ’s study showed that in the mass market segment, Ram leads with an impressive 735 points, which puts it six points ahead of GMC, seven points atop its stablemate Jeep, eight points beyond Subaru, and 22 points ahead of the industry average. Volkswagen finished dead last among mass market names, but only one point behind Ford, 684 to 683 out of a possible 1,000. Segment average, as noted, was 713 points. “Website satisfaction can be volatile, and automotive websites are not immune to changing preferences,” said Jon Sundberg, director of digital solutions at J.D. Power. “However, manufacturers have shown to be very agile when it comes to website design and ensuring their sites meet modern standards, more so than many other industries, as exemplified through the study data.” Marketing/Advertising Alfa Romeo Audi BMW Ford Volkswagen

Alfa Romeo Tonale drops the non-hybrid 2.0-liter for the U.S.

Until last week, we were expecting the Alfa Romeo Tonale to be sold with two powertrains here. When the compact crossover greeted the world for the first time in February, Alfa Romeo told us our market could expect a 2.0-liter turbocharged four-cylinder as the base option, putting out 256 horsepower through a nine-speed automatic to all four wheels. The premium choice would be a plug-in hybrid powertrain that paired a 177-hp, 1.3-liter four-cylinder turning the front axle with a 121-hp electric motor working the rear axle for a combined 275 hp. The PHEV would also be capable of 30 miles of pure-electric motoring in the U.S. Alfa Romeo boss Jean-Philippe Imparato told Automotive News Europe during the media drive that the non-hybrid 2.0-liter is no longer an option for the U.S. because Alfa Romeo needs to go especially aggressive on reducing emissions here. In Europe, the Tonale can be ordered with both powertrains as well as a diesel. Here, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) recently proposed a new set of regulations that lay out tougher benchmarks for an automaker's CO2 emissions. If the regulations pass, 35% of an automaker's sales in the state will need to be zero-emissions vehicles (ZEV) by 2026 and 100% by 2035. California, by itself, is on the cusp of passing Germany as the world's fourth-largest economy, according to Bloomberg. Furthermore, 13 states and the District of Columbia adhere to CARB emissions rules, nine of those follow California's ZEV program, and three more states will join the ZEV regulations over the next three years. Alfa Romeo sold just over 18,000 cars here last year, and it needs plenty of Tonales to offset all those Stelvios. Across the Atlantic, the Euro 7 emissions giving carmakers public fits are slated to come into force on July 1, 2025. For these reasons as well as Alfa Romeo's commitment to going all-electric this decade, Imperato told ANE the PHEV is "an existential need" in the lineup. An Alfa Romeo spokesperson in the U.S. elaborated to Car and Driver, "As a premium brand, the PHEV better aligns with what our customers want in this segment as it provides an elevated experience, greater performance, and more than 30 miles of electric range." The subtext here is that the Tonale's corporate twin, the Dodge Hornet, will offer both powertrains when it goes on sale next year.