2013 Fiat 500 Abarth With 200hp And 210tq! on 2040-cars

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FCA chairman confirms Marchionne email to Barra

FCA CEO Sergio Marchionne is apparently backing up his talk about the need for consolidation in the auto industry with quite a bit of action. One recent report claimed that he even emailed General Motors CEO Mary Barra to make a deal. FCA chairman John Elkann has now confirmed that the correspondence actually happened, and that it wasn't a one-off occurrence. "It was not the only email, it was not the only conversation," Elkann (pictured above with Marchionne) said, according to Reuters. He is a member of the Agnelli family that has a controlling stake in FCA's stock and is supporting the idea of a merger. The automaker is willing to "act with determination if there are the prerequisites to do something that makes sense," Elkann said. Marchionne has been pushing for industry consolidation for months. While GM has been the main target of late, Ford was also rumored as a partner under consideration. In the past, there have also been reports of FCA negotiating with Volkswagen Group and PSA Peugeot Citroen for mergers, as well. According to Reuters, part of the reason for all of this effort might be as a way for Marchionne to ensure his legacy, though he's denied that. He's reportedly considering retiring after 2018. In his opinion, consolidation is needed because automakers are investing too much money to achieve the same goals. The situation would be better after mergers, and he predicts something to happen before 2018. Related Video: News Source: ReutersImage Credit: Massimo Pinca / AP Photo Earnings/Financials Chrysler Fiat Sergio Marchionne FCA merger John Elkann

Stellantis could turn the Fiat 500e into a gasser in Europe

How do you solve a problem like electrification? Sometimes the solution is to consider going back to internal combustion. Automotive News Europe, via Italian newspaper Il Corriere della Sera, reports that Stellantis has asked suppliers for quotes on increasing Fiat 500e production by 100,000 units annually, at the Mirafiori, Italy, plant that builds the electric mini car. The twist in the plot is that plant reps told ANE the additional production would be for an ICE-powered 500, not the battery-electric version. See, Fiat has three challenges with the 500. The first is that 500e isn't hitting the production marks the parent company sought, 90,000 units per year; sales the past two years have been in the 77,000-unit range. The second is that the ICE-powered 500, built in Tychy, Poland, and still the 17-year-old mini car that's slightly smaller than the 500e, can only be sold in Europe until June; that 500 will fall afoul of the same cybersecurity regulations that are shuffling the Porsche Cayman, Boxster, and Macan off the European market. The third is national pride: Italy, and Mirafiori plant workers, want to maintain elevated production figures from the country's only mass-market automaker, and no one's sure the 500e will be able to do that.  Hence the exploration into the costs of alternatives. One idea — stress being on the fact that this is only an idea — is to re-engineer the electric-specific 500e platform to accept a mild-hybrid gas engine. The Mirafiori plant would still build the 500e, and it would add 100,000 units or so of a gas-powered 500. In Europe, the gasser 500 still does numbers. Transport industry JATO Dynamics said that including Abarth models, Fiat sold 108,943 units of the ICE-powered 500. If Stellantis saw fit to spend the money, the rumored engine candidate is the 1.0-liter FireFly three-cylinder, used in the sister Panda mini car, making 69 horsepower in that application.  The cost-benefit calculations run up against at least a couple of walls, one being that if Stellantis went ahead with the plan, the resulting car wouldn't hit the market until late 2025 at the earliest, perhaps two years, according to observers. Fiat also hasn't stepped back from its stated goal of being an EV-only maker in Europe by 2030, leaving a new, gas-powered 500 only four years to pay for itself, at most.

Highlights and standouts from the 2015 LA Auto Show

This year's LA Auto Show has been packed with interesting debuts and fascinating industry trends. The Autoblog team is on the scene to examine all the new metal, and Senior Editor Greg Migliore has some show highlights for us in the video above. In particular, the new Fiat 124 Spider and Honda Civic Coupe stand out as important debuts. The Fiat is based on the excellent Mazda Miata, with a turbocharged 1.4-liter engine and revised styling. The Civic Coupe is a striking redesign of an extremely popular and important model for the company. And the restyled Ford Escape looks more like its bigger brother, the Explorer. There's this an much more in our video above. Watch it and let us know what you think – and look for more LA Auto Show coverage coming soon.