2015 Fiat 500e Battery Electric Hatchback on 2040-cars

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Fiat Chrysler target 850k sales in China by 2018

Behind the vanguard of numerous Jeep models, two Chryslers, a smattering of Fiats and Alfa Romeos and local production through a joint venture with Guangzhou Automotive Group (GAG), Fiat Chrysler wants to increase sales in China more than six-fold by 2018. The group sold 130,000 cars in China in 2013, the aim for 2018 being 850,000 cars.
Ultimately it's expected that the Jeep Grand Cherokee, Cherokee, Wrangler, Renegade, the coming Grand Wagoneer and a sub-Renegade-sized crossover will either be built in or exported to the People's Republic. The Chrysler Town & Country and 300 will join the export list in 2016 and 2018 respectively, according to a report in Automotive News.
With a number of those vehicles not in production or perhaps even envisaged yet, and others not due on the local market until 2018, it will be interesting to see how Fiat Chrysler plans to achieve the target in the specified timeframe. The joint venture with GAG builds two products now, the Dodge Dart-based Fiat Viaggio launched two years ago - supposedly designed just for China - and the just-launched Fiat Ottimo, a hatchback version of the Viaggio. Fiat projected 300,000 Viagio sales in its first two years, that number has been adjusted downward to 94,000 and there doesn't appear to be an analyst alive that sees a good future for Fiat in China's overrun mainstream market. Still, last year's 130,000 group sales in China is a huge jump from 2012 sales of 66,000 units, but less than half the 300,000 units it projected.

2013 Fiat 500 Turbo

Diet Abarth
Try as I might, I just can't bring myself to stick to a routine of drinking diet soda. Nevermind the fact that I'm trying to cut soda out of my life altogether - every now and then, I just want the high-octane stuff, and diet simply won't do. If I'm already going to subject myself to the sweeteners and caffeine, I'm going to take the calories that go along with it.
Some people feel the same way about cars (go big or go home!), but I'm not one of them - I often see the merit in less-potent machines that automakers offer. For example, while I simply adored the Mini John Cooper Works GP that I recently tested, I still said I'd rather have a Cooper S Hardtop every day. And while the Ford Focus ST may have been crowned the winner in my hot hatch comparison test from last year, my experience in the Fiesta ST a couple of months ago reminded me yet again that less can indeed be more.

Fiat Abarth Zagato lovechild is a double bubble worth the trouble

The Italian automotive industry is filled with legendary names: Ferrari, Maserati, Alfa Romeo, Lancia, Lamborghini, De Tomaso, Pagani... but the names Fiat, Abarth and Zagato belong up there right beside them – especially when they came together on a vehicle as singular as this one. It's a 1957 Fiat Abarth Zagato 750 GT Corsa, and it's a rare little monster indeed. It's based on a Fiat 600, tuned by Abarth and rebodied in classic double-bubble form by Zagato. There were only about five or six hundred of these made, and only 21 of them were Corsas. Its owner, Carl Gustav Magnusson, had one just like it when he lived in Europe, and entered it five times in the Mille Miglia. But after selling it and moving to America, he found another – with matching numbers – scooped it up and has enjoyed it ever since. Fiat and Zagato took a modern stab at a similar formula a few years ago, and if it had ever reached production, an Abarth version would likely have followed. But alas it never did, so the closest we'll likely ever get is to join the videographic artisans at Petrolicious as they tell the story of this beautiful little classic in the video above.