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Fiat brand chief reassigned then resigns amid flagging sales

Jason Stoicevich was replaced as head of the Fiat brand in North America just the other day. He was immediately reassigned to another job within Fiat Chrysler Automobiles. But according to Automotive News, Stoicevich quit the new job – and the company altogether – the very next day. The development comes amidst flagging sales for the Fiat brand in America. The introduction of the awkward-looking 500L multi-purpose vehicle has been largely regarded as a sales disaster in the US. Despite having just introduced the new 500X into the growing crossover market, and an overall upward trend across FCA group sales, the Fiat brand's figures have been dropping all year. While the Italian brand's volume has fluctuated from month to month compared to last year's sales, the number of cars its dealers sells on an average day has been firmly in decline. Fiat's downward trend reflects a general tendency in the market towards larger vehicles at the expense of smaller ones. However, the powers that be in Auburn Hills evidently felt that a change of leadership was in order, so it placed Dodge chief Tim Kuniskis in charge of all the company's mass-market passenger-car brands – namely Dodge, Chrysler, and Fiat – and moved Stoicevich to running the group's fleet and small-business operations. Stoicevich remained in charge of the company's California Business Center, but it seems as though he was as dissatisfied with the switch as his superiors were with the performance of the brand over which he presided, and so he apparently elected to step down and leave the company.

Aurora lands Fiat Chrysler as a client of its self-driving technology

SAN FRANCISCO — Self-driving car software startup Aurora said on Sunday it would partner with Fiat Chrysler to build autonomous platforms for commercial vehicles, the latest collaboration with an automaker for the fast-growing Silicon Valley company. The deal with one of the Detroit Three will expand Aurora's scope, "allowing us to offer a variety of solutions to strategic customers in logistics, transit and other use cases," the Palo Alto, California-based company said in a brief statement. Besides for ride-hailing fleets, automakers and others are interested in self-driving technology for commercial applications, such as delivery vans. Financial terms were not disclosed. Aurora already has partnerships with Volkswagen AG, Hyundai and China's Byton to develop and test self-driving systems for a range of applications for automakers, fleet owners and others. The company is among dozens of startups, automakers and large technology companies working on self-driving car systems, eager to capitalize on a sea change in the transportation industry brought by developments in machine learning. Fiat Chrysler has an existing partnership with Waymo, Alphabet's self-driving unit, in which it supplies Chrysler Pacifica hybrid minivans for Waymo's driverless fleet, which is currently in operation in Arizona. In February, Aurora said it had raised $530 million in new funding.

Facelifted Fiat 500 coming to Frankfurt

Previous spy photos already indicated that a refreshed Fiat 500 was on the way, but the latest shots of it in a parking garage have suggested a much more significant update to the little Italian hatchback than we first thought. Surprisingly, the most recent examples to be photographed have started wearing even more concealment than when we last saw one testing. The camouflage for this hatchback and convertible is so all-encompassing that it makes picking out precise details very difficult. As with the previous shots, the refresh is definitely bringing revised front and rear fascias. However, these photos also show the headlights well masked, and the copious camouflage around the rear-side windows suggests possible changes there, as well. At the rear, the taillights are hidden, but they appear slightly altered with a red portion at the top and white area at the bottom. The concealment is just as prevalent inside, but the 500 appears to maintain a two-tone look. Both body styles of the 500 are rumored to debut sometime this year, possibly at the Frankfurt Motor Show in September.