Proposed Fiat Chrysler/Renault tie-up would provide access to critical vehicle platforms

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles could benefit from Renault’s extensive portfolio of cars.

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles would gain much-needed scale by getting access to Renault Group’s platforms for passenger cars and crossovers, if the proposed merger of the two European giants goes ahead.

FCA presented a merger plan on Monday to Renault, which is reviewing what it said was a “friendly” offer.

While FCA outsold Renault globally last year 4.8 million vehicles to 3.9 million, FCA is currently the sum of three regional businesses. Renault, however, is much more globally integrated with its Japanese alliance partner, Nissan, because the two have been working together since 1999.

While it is easy to promise rapid industrial synergies in a press release or a PowerPoint presentation, they take years to become reality.

For example it took Renault-Nissan more than a decade to create a truly common global architecture. The Common Module Family, or CMF, introduced in 2013, reduces development costs by up to 40 percent and parts costs by up to 30 percent, Renault-Nissan says.

CMF is not a single platform. It is a system of interchangeable modules applicable to almost every vehicle size. By segment, it is known as CMF-A (minicars), CMF-B (small cars) and CMF-C/D(compacts and midsize cars). With more than 20 alliance models based on CMF, Renault-Nissan expects about 9 million vehicles a year to have the common architecture.

If a merger can be finalized, that number would easily top 10 million because access to CMF would let FCA more quickly develop a global range of passenger cars and crossovers than it could have done alone.

In March, the alliance debuted CMF-B with the launch of the Renault Clio, which is not only the French company’s best-seller in Europe, it was also the No. 2-selling model in Europe after the Volkswagen Golf last year, according to market researcher JATO Dynamics.


















FCA, meanwhile, did not become a single entity until October 2014, which is when Chrysler Group’s activities were fully merged into Fiat Group Automobiles. This means platform and powertrain sharing across FCA’s three main regions – North America, Europe, Middle East Africa (EMEA) and Latin American – is marginal.

The one exception is the Jeep brand, whose small Renegade, compact Compass and midsize Cherokee are built in different regions using the same underpinnings.

For Renault, the platform benefits gained from FCA would be more regional than global, but they remain significant. For instance, in North America, FCA could give Renault access to the body-on-frame architecture used by the Jeep Wrangler SUV and Gladiator pick up, as well as a new unibody architecture designed to underpin the new Jeep Grand Cherokee and its larger siblings.

In Europe, FCA could share the rear-wheel-drive/all-wheel-drive Giorgio architecture created for the Alfa Romeo Giulia midsize sedan and Stelvio midsized SUV. FCA CEO Mike Manley recently said the Giorgio architecture would also become the base for a future range of Maserati models.

“Fiat Chrysler would get key platform boost from Renault tie-up” was originally posted at Automotive News on 5/28/19.

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