1994 Dodge Handicap Wheelchair Caravan 35,295 Original Miles on 2040-cars

Auto blog

For his last act, Marchionne will outline an EV/hybrid roadmap this week

MILAN/LONDON — Fiat Chrysler (FCA) boss Sergio Marchionne is expected to outline new plans for electric and hybrid cars in a strategy presentation on Friday, aiming to ensure the world's seventh-largest carmaker remains in the race in the absence of a merger. The 65-year-old will present FCA's strategy to 2022, his final contribution to the company he turned around and multiplied in value through 14 years of canny dealmaking. After failing to secure a tie-up he said was necessary to manage the costs of producing cleaner vehicles, Marchionne needs to show the group can keep churning out profits on its own, even as emissions rules tighten, SUV competition intensifies and worries around his succession abound. Marchionne had long refused to jump on the electrification bandwagon, saying he would only do so if selling battery-powered cars could be done at a profit. He even urged customers not to buy FCA's Fiat 500e, its only battery-powered model, because he was losing money on each sold. But Tesla's success and the need to comply with tougher emissions rules have forced Marchionne to commit to what he calls "most painful" spending. "FCA is way behind rivals in terms of hybrid and electric vehicles and they need to hit the accelerator to convince investors they can close that gap," said Andrea Pastorelli, a fund manager at 8a+ Investimenti. Germany's Volkswagen, Daimler, BMW and U.S. rivals GM and Ford have committed to spending billions of euros each in coming years to try produce profitable cars powered by cleaner fuels. FCA needs to present a clear roadmap, just like Volvo Cars, which ditched diesel from its best-selling XC60 SUV, launched a new electric brand and pledged to shift all brands to hybrid by 2019, a banking source close to FCA said, noting: "The tech divide determines winners and losers in the industry." Marchionne has already said half of the wider FCA fleet will incorporate some elements of electrification by 2022, while luxury marque Maserati will spearhead FCA's electrification drive by making all new models due after 2019 electric. But its plans remain vaguer and less advanced than most big rivals and some investors wonder about the capital required to make vehicles compliant, and what share of spending can go to electrification given FCA's numerous demands.

The final-year Viper special editions sold out so fast Dodge is adding more

Viper collectors don't mess around. After Dodge opened ordering for its 25th anniversary 2017 Viper models – some of the last ones that will be built – all of the cars were spoken for in just five days. The company managed to sell 206 cars, an average of about 41 per day. Compare that to the 241 Vipers sold through May of this year and you can see why special editions make good business sense. Demand was so strong that Dodge will add a sixth special-edition for the Viper's last year of production. Within the group of five initial special packages, the winner was the 1:28 Edition ACR; all 28 went in 40 minutes. Dodge sold the 31 VooDoo II Edition ACRs in two hours, while 25 Snakeskin Edition GTCs and 100 GTS-R Commemorative Edition ACRs took two days to sell out. The 22 Dodge Dealer Edition ACRs took five days – apparently the dealers were too busy taking orders for the other 184 cars they didn't have time to order their own. The additional anniversary car is called the Snakeskin ACR. Dodge will build "up to" 31 of them, which we're pretty sure means exactly 31 if the previous demand is any indicator. The count matches the 2010 run of Snakeskin ACRs and will take the final-edition total to 237. We don't have any photos of that one yet, but you can get a good idea of what it will look like from the Snakeskin GTC. This one features Snakeskin Green paint, obviously, with a custom snakeskin-patterned SRT stripe, the ACR Package, the Extreme Aero Package, carbon-ceramic brakes, the ACR interior, a serialized Snakeskin badge on the instrument panel, and a custom car cover with the owner's name by the door. It will be available to order in the middle of this month, which means it will be sold out well by the end of the month. Chances are these and many of the others will go to mega-collectors like Wayne and D'Ann Rauh of Texas, who, at last count, owned 79 Vipers. Seventy-nine. Like we said, Viper collectors don't mess around. Related Video:

Dodge Hornet supposedly snapped inside Alfa Romeo Tonale factory

It appears that someone in Stellantis' Pomigliano d’Arco Assembly Plant in Italy couldn't keep their cellphone to themselves. Video uploaded to the Alfa Romeo Club Italia Facebook page, then quickly removed, purports to show Dodge's brand-engineered version of the Alfa Romeo Tonale in the same factory where the Alfa will be built. The Dodge is expected to be called the Hornet, and there are a few differences between it and and Alfa Romeo, which is understandable. But if the screenshots on Twitter are accurate, then the Dodge looks a lot closer to the Alfa Romeo than perhaps anyone expected. The front fascia and hood fall in line with Dodge's design language. The Alfa grille is replaced by a narrow, stepped upper grille, and the hood is one of the vented units similar to those available for Dodge's R/T performance trims. And as Mopar Insiders noticed, the silhouette of this car's front end matches a vehicle silhouette Dodge showed during Stellantis' 2021 EV Day.   Inside, the Italian brand's crest in the steering wheel center cap is replaced by Dodge's twin slashes, and the steering wheel has been stripped of the large, curved paddle shifters the Tonale showed on its debut. There's still a start/stop button on the steering wheel, but where the Tonale has a driving mode dial on its dash, this supposed Hornet has another start/stop button. Dodge's push-to-start buttons are usually on the instrument panel, so our guess is that the wheel is a holdover for testing. On the center tunnel, the parking alert buttons and Italian Tricolore flag on the Alfa Romeo are replaced by three different buttons.   We've known Dodge has two electrified vehicles on the way, and the Hornet name has been low-key buzzing for two years. Fiat Chrysler applied to trademark the name in the U.S. in March 2020; at the time, it was thought a vehicle with that name could replace the Journey. In 2021, a July rumor out of Italy was the first whisper of the Hornet name being attached to the Alfa Romeo Tonale. In August, when Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares said Dodge would get a PHEV in 2024, watchers pegged that model as the Hornet. That hybrid powertrain would show a year after the vehicle's launch, the Hornet anticipated as a 2023 model with the Tonale's turbocharged 2.0-liter four-cylinder. That engine could get the same 256 horsepower and 295 pound-feet of torque as the Tonale, or be boosted to satisfy Dodge's performance credentials.