2012 Fiat 500 Yellow on 2040-cars

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FCA withdraws its offer to merge with Renault

UPDATE: Fiat Chrysler Automobiles released a statement confirming that it has withdrawn its merger offer, saying "it has become clear that the political conditions in France do not currently exist for such a combination to proceed successfully." The full statement can be read below our original story, which continues below. Fiat Chrysler has withdrawn its $35 billion merger offer for Renault, the Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg News reported on Wednesday. A source said that FCA had informed Renault it had withdrawn the offer after Renault's board of directors failed to reach a decision on the merger during a meeting that ran late into the night Wednesday. Instead, the board granted the French government's request to postpone its vote. The government wanted time to persuade Renault's reticent alliance partner Nissan. Renault's board issued a press release that said simply that it was "unable to take a decision due to the request expressed by the representatives of the French State to postpone the vote to a later Council." WSJ reported that Nissan's two members on Renault's board were balking, while the rest of the board favored the merger. The French government wouldn't it back the deal unless Nissan agreed to maintain its role in the Renault-Nissan alliance, sources said. Nissan had received little advance warning of the merger proposal and was balking. Apparently the French government thought Nissan could be brought around if given more time. "We should take our time to make sure that things are done well," French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire told French television on Wednesday. When the French requested a delay and Renault's board granted it, FCA withdrew. The French state, which owns 15% of Renault, had also been seeking more influence over the merged company, firmer job guarantees and improved terms for Renault shareholders in return for blessing the $35 billion tie-up. The merger would have created the world's third-biggest automaker with combined sales of 8.7 million vehicles per year, and was intended to cut costs as the parties develop electric and autonomous vehicles. Read Fiat Chrysler Automobile's full statement below: FCA withdraws merger proposal to Groupe Renault June 5, 2019 , London - IMPORTANT NOTICE The Board of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles N.V. ("FCA") (NYSE: FCAU / MTA: FCA), meeting this evening under the Chairmanship of John Elkann, has resolved to withdraw with immediate effect its merger proposal made to Groupe Renault.

2014 Fiat 500C GQ Edition mans up [w/videos]

Fiat dealers recently welcomed the five-door 500L into their 'studios' as a much-needed second model line, but franchisees are still clamoring for additional new model ranges as most struggle to reach profitability. There's more in the pipeline for the reborn brand, but in the meantime, Fiat continues to rely on special editions of existing products to drum up interest, in this case, the just-introduced 2014 500C GQ Edition. Meant in part to extend appeal of the tiny 500C to more male shoppers, the GQ Edition teams up the rolltop Cinquecento with publishing juggernaut Conde Nast for a (somewhat) more masculine special edition version of the 500 Turbo.
Chief among the exterior changes are 16-inch gloss black alloys with red-trimmed center caps, a more aggressive lower fascia and black-bucket headlamps, along with the requisite GQ badging. There's no additional chutzpah found under the Fiat's tiny hood, but that's okay, the 'Diet Abarth' Turbo model has a plenty adequate 160 horsepower and 170 pound-feet of torque from its 1.4-liter Multiair engine to go with its five-speed manual gearbox.
As you'd expect of a GQ-branded product, due attention has been paid to the interior furnishings, including a matte-finish body-color gauge cluster nacelle, and Nero black leather seats lifted by Alcantara inserts incorporating a Steam leatherette center stripe and GQ embossing on the backrest.

Fiat Chrysler starts production of ventilator components in Italy

MILAN — Fiat Chrysler has begun producing ventilator parts to help Italy's Siare Engineering boost its output of the medical equipment needed to treat patients during the coronavirus crisis, the carmaker said on Friday. Carmakers around the world are ramping up production of critical healthcare products and machines to respond to the enormous demand during the pandemic. Italy, the epicenter of the virus outbreak in Europe, had asked Siare to triple its normal monthly production as a part of government efforts to increase the number of intensive care beds. FCA said that with the support of luxury group Ferrari and holding company Exor, which controls both carmakers, it had produced the first electrovalves, a key part in ventilators, at its plant in Cento, in northern Italy. The Cento plant is usually used to produces high-performance car engines for the global market. It had been closed because of the coronavirus but has partially reopened for this project. "With the additional supply of electrovalves from Cento, Siare estimates that it will be able to reduce total production time for ventilators by as much as 30-50%", the statement said. In addition to the production of the electrovalves, a team of specialists from FCA is also working alongside Siare staff at their production facility near the city of Bologna. "The objective is to help increase Siare's total production, with a gradual scaling up of daily output beginning from the first week of April", FCA said.