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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.

FCA worker in Indiana tests for coronavirus, but the plant will stay open

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV said Thursday that an employee has tested positive for COVID-19 at its Kokomo, Indiana, transmission plant, but the location will remain open. The Italian-American automaker said the company placed the employee and his immediate co-workers and others he may have come into direct contact with in home quarantine. The automaker said it is “deploying additional sanitization measures across the entire facility, re-timing break times to avoid crowding and deploying social spacing.” Fiat Chrysler is canceling all in-person meetings unless “business critical” and conducted meetings through video conferencing technologies. Automakers also have canceled non-essential travel. Ford, meanwhile, said its plants in North America remain unaffected. General Motors spokesman Jim Cain said the Detroit automaker has not had any cases of the coronavirus in its North American plants yet, citing such measures as reduced travel and restricted entry to plants as helping. How the No. 1 U.S. automaker would respond to a positive test would depend on the situation, he added. “You do plan to operate with a certain amount of absenteeism, but every facility has a different operating plan,” he said. The Fiat side of the FCA operation, meanwhile,  is temporarily halting operations at some plants in Italy and will reduce production rates in response to coronavirus in the country, the largest outbreak in Europe, a spokesman for the automaker said on Wednesday. FCA said in a statement it had stepped up measures across its facilities, including intensive sanitation of all work and rest areas, to support the government's directives to curb the spread of the infectious disease. "As a result of taking these actions the company will, where necessary, make temporary closures of its plants across Italy," it said. The spokesman said affected plants were Pomigliano, Melfi, Atessa and Cassino, each of them halted for two or three days between Wednesday and Saturday. FCA said that to allow greater spacing of employees at their workstations, "daily production rates will be lowered to accommodate the adapted manufacturing processes." However, a source close to the matter said FCA did not expect an impact on overall production rates. The source added that temporary closures were in no way linked to disruptions of auto parts supplies following anti-virus measures imposed by Rome all over Italy.

2023 Fiat 500e Abarth revealed, quicker than the gas model

The much-loved Fiat 500 Abarth finally has a successor, and now it's electric. The 500e Abarth takes the regular model and adds a much more powerful electric motor, plus sportier styling. And while outright power is less than the top gas model, Fiat says that the new Abarth is faster on track. On the outside, the Abarth features the brand's name plastered across the nose in place of the regular "500" logo and chrome bar. The scorpion badge now sits on top of the hood. The front bumper is unique with more aggressive air vents and a deeper air dam. The side skirts are new, too, and the rear bumper diffuser gets white inserts to match the front air dam. The Abarth scorpion badges on the sides have been tweaked to fit the electric theme, and the car gets new 18-inch wheels and some of the coolest side stripes we've seen in some time. Inside, the Abarth in the launch Scorpionissima trim gets a three-spoke steering wheel, Alcantara upholstery and stainless steel pedals and door sills. The major performance upgrade for the 500e Abarth is the motor. It makes 153 horsepower and 173 pound-feet, compared to the next most-powerful 500e at 118 horsepower. It will get the little hatchback from 0 to 62 mph in 7 seconds. Fiat didn't say much about suspension and brake upgrades, but we assume they've been improved to match the sporty pretensions of the Abarth. Especially as Fiat says the electric Abarth will lap the company's Balocco test track more than a second faster than the current gas-powered 500 Abarth 695, which packs 180 horsepower. Certainly the lower center of gravity, wider track and longer wheelbase play some role, but there are likely other upgrades at work. The Abarth won't be going farther than the regular 500e, though. It uses the same 42-kWh battery, which returns 199 miles of range on the WLTP cycle in the 500e. In the Abarth, with its more powerful motor, range is likely to decrease somewhat. Owners worried about the lack of sound from an electric car won't have to worry about that with the Abarth. Available is an external sound generator. It can produce an emulated exhaust note based on the gas-powered Abarth models audible to the driver and to passersby. Fortunately, it can be switched off, too, if you don't like the idea of fake exhaust sounds. We sort of wish they opted for a more creative and less "realistic" sound like Dodge did with the Charger Daytona concept and its Fratzonic exhaust sound generator.