With the European market in a recession, Fiat is actively looking to form some kind of cost-saving alliance with another manufacturer.
After GM turned down Fiat’s offer for Opel opting to tie-up its troubled European operations with PSA Peugeot Citroen instead, the company’s CEO Sergio Marhionne (who denied having spoken to the French before GM did) is now open to courting Volvo.
“I’m interested in talking to everyone that wants to talk to me”, Marchionne told British magazine Autocar in regards to a possible partnership with Volvo on the sidelines of this week’s Geneva Motor Show.
The publication added that Marchionne also had talks with Japanese carmakers about the development of alternative drivetrains.
Due to the high cost of developing these technologies, though, he’s more interested in internal combustion engines in which the Fiat and Chrysler CEO believes “there’s lots of unexplored technology”.
Volvo would perhaps make a suitable partner for Fiat. Even though it has engineered the new Scalable Platform Architecture as well as the VEA modular turbocharged four-cylinders for its bigger models, the Geely-owned carmaker is looking for a partner in developing small models.
In January, Volvo CEO Stephan Jacoby had told the Financial Times: “We are open for collaboration in a win-win situation for sharing platforms and engines and for a general higher scale of economics.”
