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2016: The year of the autonomous-car promise

About half of the news we covered this year related in some way to The Great Autonomous Future, or at least it seemed that way. If you listen to automakers, by 2020 everyone will be driving (riding?) around in self-driving cars. But what will they look like, how will we make the transition from driven to driverless, and how will laws and infrastructure adapt? We got very few answers to those questions, and instead were handed big promises, vague timelines, and a dose of misdirection by automakers. There has been a lot of talk, but we still don't know that much about these proposed vehicles, which are at least three years off. That's half a development cycle in this industry. We generally only start to get an idea of what a company will build about two years before it goes on sale. So instead of concrete information about autonomous cars, 2016 has brought us a lot of promises, many in the form of concept cars. They have popped up from just about every automaker accompanied by the CEO's pledge to deliver a Level 4 autonomous, all-electric model (usually a crossover) in a few years. It's very easy to say that a static design study sitting on a stage will be able to drive itself while projecting a movie on the windshield, but it's another thing entirely to make good on that promise. With a few exceptions, 2016 has been stuck in the promising stage. It's a strange thing, really; automakers are famous for responding with "we don't discuss future product" whenever we ask about models or variants known to be in the pipeline, yet when it comes to self-driving electric wondermobiles, companies have been falling all over themselves to let us know that theirs is coming soon, it'll be oh so great, and, hey, that makes them a mobility company now, not just an automaker. A lot of this is posturing and marketing, showing the public, shareholders, and the rest of the industry that "we're making one, too, we swear!" It has set off a domino effect – once a few companies make the guarantee, the rest feel forced to throw out a grandiose yet vague plan for an unknown future. And indeed there are usually scant details to go along with such announcements – an imprecise mileage estimate here, or a far-off, percentage-based goal there. Instead of useful discussion of future product, we get demonstrations of test mules, announcements of big R&D budgets and new test centers they'll fund, those futuristic concept cars, and, yeah, more promises.

Fiat talking with banks about buying rest of Chrysler

All that stands in the way of Fiat's total ownership of Chrysler is a 41.5-percent stake currently held by the United Auto Workers healthcare trust, but according to SFGate.com, Sergio Marchionne is currently trying to raise the capital to complete the acquisition. The article says that a deal could be completed in as soon as 12 months, and the estimate for the remaining stake could cost Fiat SpA around $2.98 billion.
With a goal of completing the deal by the end of 2014, Marchionne is said to be in talks with various banks to help finance some of the deal. According to the report, the banks have indicated a need for a stronger balance sheet, controlled debt and reserve cash.
Two things that don't seem to be on the table to get the deal completed include issuing new shares to raise the capital or selling a stake in Ferrari. Fiat started with a 20 percent share of Chrysler in June 2009, and it raised its stake up to 58.5 percent in January 2012.

Fiat will start selling 500e in Oregon this summer

Even thought demand in California for the Fiat 500e electric vehicle is growing, the fun little EV is about to grown its sales to the north. Fiat US chief Jason Stoicevich tells Wards Auto that sales of the EV will start in Oregon this summer, adding that green-minded Portland will likely be a strong market for the model. Fiat 500e demand in California is "fantastic." This year's first-quarter sales of the gas-powered and EV variants of the 500 were up about 19 percent from a year earlier, as a recent TV ad campaign featuring Sean "P. Diddy" Combs and the model's availability at about 220 dealerships appear to have been effective. Stoicevich didn't give any specific sales figures for the 500e, though he did say demand in California is "fantastic." "After its introduction in California last year, the Fiat 500e has been a great success for our brand in just a short period of time," Fiat spokeswoman Angela Bianchi wrote in an e-mail to AutoblogGreen while confirming the debut of 500e sales in Oregon this summer. "Oregon is the second-largest ZEV (zero-emissions vehicle) state after California." Late last year, Wards Auto named the 500e motor to its 10 Best Engines list, making the model the first Fiat ever to receive that honor. The 500e has 111 horsepower and can go 87 miles on a single charge. The 500e also won Road & Track's 2013 award for best electric car in November as the model was praised for its power and handling. Read our review of the 500e here.