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Ralph Gilles named Fiat Chrysler head of design

The amalgamation of two major automakers like Fiat and Chrysler inevitably means that there'll be some redundancy. There can't be two design chiefs for the entire group, for example, so the Italian-American automaker has named just one to oversee all design for its various divisions – and that one individual is Ralph Gilles. A Chrysler group veteran, Gilles has been at Auburn Hills since 1992, and has held a number of key positions along the way. He has until now served as senior vice president in charge of what's now known as the FCA North American Design Office – a position he assumed in June 2009 when it was still just the Chrysler design office – and has previously run the Dodge and SRT brands and headed up the company's racing activities. In assuming his new role as the group's Head of Design, Gilles will also step up to the FCA Group Executive Council. Meanwhile Lorenzo Ramaciotti, who joined Fiat as head of design in 2007 after serving the same function at Pininfarina, is now set to retire. Along with the Gilles appointment and Ramaciotti retirement, FCA has named Mauro Fenzi as group COO Systems and head of Comau, Fiat's robotic machinery division. FCA Announces Executive Changes - Appoints Gilles as Chief Designer - Names Fenzi COO Systems and CEO of Comau April 1, 2015 , London - Fiat Chrysler Automobiles N.V. (NYSE: FCAU / MI: FCA) today announced that Ralph Gilles was named Head of Design and member of the FCA Group Executive Council (GEC). He currently leads the FCA North American Design Office as Senior Vice President, a position he was named to in June 2009. The GEC is the highest management-level decision making body within the FCA organization and is led by the FCA Chief Executive Officer (CEO). Gilles succeeds Lorenzo Ramaciotti, who is retiring after several years of dedicated service with the Company. Ramaciotti will continue to lend his expertise to the group serving as a Special Advisor to the CEO. "We extend our sincere appreciation to Lorenzo for his unwavering dedication, service, leadership and many contributions to the organization," said Sergio Marchionne, Chief Executive Officer, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles N.V. Gilles previously served as CEO – Motorsports; President and CEO – SRT Brand and CEO – Dodge Brand for FCA US in addition to his leadership role in Design. He joined the Company in 1992.

Move over Audi, now Chrysler has a beef with Tesla's claims

In the same week that Audi said "not so fast" to some claims from Tesla, Chrysler has responded to a new press release from the California-based EV-maker by saying "not exactly, Tesla." The statement, released through the company's blog, comes in response to Tesla claiming it was "the only American car company to have fully repaid the government." Chrysler notes that it, too, recently paid back Uncle Sam from its 2008 bailout. Similar to Audi's recent press release, which was eventually and mysteriously deleted from the German automaker's site, Chrysler is both right and wrong in its statement.
Tesla specifically said that it had paid back the Department of Energy loans that many automakers received - including Fisker and VPG Autos - while Chrysler's retort argues Tesla is "unmistakably incorrect" since it repaid the government in 2011 a full six years early. Technically, the statements from both automakers are correct, but Tesla's startup loan originated from the DoE, while Chrysler's loan came in bailout form from the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP). Further, as The Detroit News notes, Chrysler's loan still cost taxpayers well over a billion dollars after all was said and done - those negative assets tied to "old Chrysler" in the bankruptcy did not require repayment.

Takata airbag recall claims 209k Chrysler, Dodge vehicles

Chrysler is expanding the scope of its front passenger side Takata airbag inflator recall yet again to include 139,115 additional vehicles for a total of 208,783 units now needing these parts replaced. The latest campaign affects the passenger side inflators of the 2003-2005 Dodge Ram 1500, 2003-2005 Dodge Ram 2500, 2003-2005 Dodge Ram 3500, 2004-2005 Durango; 2005 Dakota pickup; 2005 Dodge Magnum and 2005 Chrysler 300 (pictured above), 300C and SRT8. It's limited to vehicles purchased or ever registered in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas and the territories of American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, Saipan and the US Virgin Islands. The company expects owners to be notified by February 8. The automaker just expanded the replacement campaign last week to include passenger side inflators in 149,150 pickups from the 2003 model year. However, the parts are not the same. Chrysler says this recall is for the PSPI family of components versus SPI for the last one. The company is also not aware of any injuries or accidents in its vehicles from these potentially faulty inflators, and lab testing of 600 of them finds no issues. Despite this, Chrysler is repairing these models at the request of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Scroll down to read the company's full announcement of the initiative. Statement: Air-bag Inflator (Regional Field Action Expansion) December 12, 2014 , Auburn Hills, Mich. - Chrysler Group is expanding an ongoing regional field action with a recall to replace front passenger-side air-bag inflators in an estimated 208,783 older-model vehicles originally purchased or ever registered in seven U.S. states and five territories. The vehicles are equipped with front passenger-side air-bag inflators from a product family code-named "PSPI." Chrysler Group is unaware of any injuries or accidents involving PSPI inflators of the type covered by this campaign, nor has a Chrysler Group investigation identified a defect in these components. Further, laboratory tests on nearly 600 such inflators did not result in any failures. The inflators affected by this campaign differ in design and construction from PSPI inflators used by other auto makers. They also benefited from a more robust manufacturing process. However, at the request of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), Chrysler Group is expanding its replacement action beyond its original scope of Florida, Hawaii, Puerto Rico and the U.S.