Fiat-Peugeot merger

The tried a hook-up with Renault a couple of months ago but that got shot down by Nissan and the French Govt, so the next company in the Rolodex was Peugeot.

When they were trying for Renault, the smart money was saying that was a great play because Renault (whooda thunk it?!!?) was ahead of almost every other Euro automaker (and well ahead of FCA) in electric vehicle tech, as in a big slate of electric cars mere months away from showrooms, vs 3-5 years for FCA. FCA muckity mucks thought that a hook up with Renault would have made all of Renault's elec-tech available for use in FCA product much sooner than the home-grown.

Not sure what the attraction of Peugeot is, other than your typical mega-merger buzz words like "synergy" and "complementary product" which always looks good on paper but rarely accrues to the bottom line. That and the fact that the girls get prettier near closing time.
 
Very logical attempt, with Renault that is. They were (for once) looking long term. Anyone with well developed EV tech is going to have a better chance at surviving the next ten years. I don't think I've read much about Peugeot's efforts. As for Fiat, they do have the 2020 (new) Fiat 500 EV with about 240 miles range, comparable to other GenTwo EVs like the Bolt and others. Doesn't look like it's coming to North America.

Incidentally, I have a 2015 500e. That design goes back to 2012 with nary a change. It's like a 386 processor in the age of 10-core CPUs. Another model allowed to rot.
 
Interesting. As was said, there have been lots of cooperative efforts between large car makers in recent years. Often sharing specific vehicles with minor changes and different badging (e.g. the 124 Miata). So the French connection may be nothing more than a one model shared effort, perhaps a EV as suggested, rather than a full merger of brands? I'm not sure how a French made car compares to a Italian one...suppose it can't be much worse. The French tend to be much more progressive historically so it could help to spice things up for Fiat. Of course "Fiat" in this case likely refers to the corporate name and not the actual Fiat line of vehicles. So any new cooperative efforts might be for one of their other brands (a French made 5 passenger Ferrari with some very funky styling? :p).
 
Coupefan said:
Did I just come across a well written internet joke or is this real?
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It’s real, although as with any big merger the deal can still fall through for various reasons.
It’s a full merger - the two companies will combine into one, not just cooperating on a few products while maintaining separate corporate identities.

Top leadership at FCA has believed for some years that, big though FCA is, it’s not big enough to swing the retooling and R&D investment needed to get through an industry transition to electric and automated vehicles. The combined company will sell more cars than GM and come close to Toyota and VW; that’s the sort of cash flow needed to be a player.
 
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It certainly looks real enough, although as someone who has only owned Fiats, Alfas and Peugeots I'm not really too upset ;)

Currently, I'm down to one and a half X1/9s and a Peugeot 406 Coupe, although all of them were made in Turin (at least the bodies: the Fiats at Bertone and the 406 coupe at Pinninferina).

As far as mergers go, this isn't a bad one. Peugeots are excellent driver's cars and it is not just Peugeot but PSA which includes Citroen as well: a marque which is known for being one of the most innovative in the industry.

Here are a few of examples of the lineage...

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I thought this story would get a lot more play here that it has. Perhaps because its been under-reported?

From what I have read the Peugeot-Citroen-Fiat/FCA merger was more a Peugeot purchase of Fiat. There is a strong expectation (from the press I have read) that the new company will completely re-brand itself and that the Fiat name might not exist soon. If so, that'd be a sad day for me.
 
Jim McKenzie said:
I thought this story would get a lot more play here that it has. Perhaps because its been under-reported?

From what I have read the Peugeot-Citroen-Fiat/FCA merger was more a Peugeot purchase of Fiat. There is a strong expectation (from the press I have read) that the new company will completely re-brand itself and that the Fiat name might not exist soon. If so, that'd be a sad day for me.
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FIAT as a brand still has a significant presence in Europe and South America, so little chance of it going away in those regions. In the North America, FIAT is FCA's lowest volume brand and in the overall scheme is just barely more than an asterisk to a footnote. With the NA small car market locked up by the Asian brands and the overall sedan market shrinking, FIAT really doesn't have a purpose in this market and will probably be withdrawn within a year, tops two. Sad for us, but the writing was on the wall when they failed to flesh out the NA FIAT lineup with any competitive product.
 
Speaking of mergers, I visited my machine shop buddy today. On one of the workbenches someone had dropped off a dual-mass flywheel to be ground. It had "NISSAN Renault" laser etched into it.
 
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