TURIN — In outlining the industrial side of their merger, PSA Group and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles said almost two-thirds of their production would be concentrated on just two platforms, with 3 million vehicles per year on a compact/midsize platform and 2.6 million on a small platform.
The smaller platform will be PSA’s CMP architecture, and larger vehicles will be on the group’s EMP2, industry sources told Automotive News Europe. Ram pickups and larger Jeep models will continue to use FCA underpinnings.
PSA’s architectures offer several advantages. They can accommodate gasoline, diesel or electrified drivetrains, allowing a quick response to shifts in customer demand without significant new investments on production lines. They also are more modern than FCA’s equivalent platforms, some of which still date back to the DaimlerChrysler era.
Moving FCA vehicles to PSA platforms could quickly increase economies of scale for the merged company, much as PSA did after acquiring Opel in 2017.
“Comparing the new company to our peers, we see that 3 million car volume per platform and per year is a highly competitive ratio,” PSA CEO Carlos Tavares said. “This is absolutely paramount, and this is something we will deliver after the closing by making the necessary decisions to convert to a limited number of platforms.”
That leaves almost 3 million vehicles annually, based on 2018 sales, on other platforms.
The majority are on the FCA side of the tie-up. Body-on-frame pickups from Ram accounted for 720,000 sales in 2018, according to JATO Dynamics. A comparable number of minivans, SUVs and large sedans was sold under the Chrysler and Dodge brands.
Other models on dedicated platforms are the body-on-frame Jeep Wrangler and Gladiator; the Jeep Grand Cherokee, on a unibody platform shared with the Dodge Durango; and commercial vans for Citroen, Fiat and Peugeot. FCA is in the late stages of redesigning the Grand Cherokee onto Alfa Romeo’s Giulia and Stelvio platform, for the 2021 or 2022 model year.
Jeep plans to start production of the Wagoneer and Grand Wagoneer in about a year, and recent spy photos of prototypes suggest the SUVs will ride on the Ram 1500 platform. Peugeot, meanwhile, is expected to introduce a body-on-frame pickup next year, developed with its Chinese partner Dongfeng.
FCA already eliminated most of the car nameplates that would have been candidates for consolidation onto the two primary platforms. That’s one reason the two automakers have such little overlap in their lineups.
Although the companies said last week they don’t anticipate closing plants as a result of the merger, FCA’s minivan and full-size car plants in Ontario will be up for discussion at next year’s contract negotiations with Unifor, the Canadian auto union.
The CMP platform, designed to cover small cars and the lower part of the compact segment, allows for gasoline, diesel or full-electric power. It was launched last year with the DS 3 Crossback small SUV, and it underpins the new generation of Peugeot 208 and 2008 and the Opel/Vauxhall Corsa. The next model using CMP is expected to be a replacement for the Citroen C4 Cactus compact hatchback, due next year.
The EMP2 platform, covering the upper part of the compact segment and midsize models, debuted in 2017 on the Peugeot 3008 compact crossover. It is also used for the 5008 midsize SUV, the DS 7 Crossback, the Citroen C5 Aircross and the Opel Grandland. The Peugeot 508 midsize sedan and station wagon, launched last year, were the first car models using the architecture. Currently EMP2 is offered with gasoline, diesel and gasoline plug-in hybrid models, but it is also designed to offer pure battery models in the next decade.
The first FCA model based on the CMP architecture could be a small crossover for Alfa Romeo, due in 2022, also with a battery-electric variant.
FCA has said it will exit the minicar segment and has written off investments in the architecture used in the Fiat 500 and Panda, and Lancia Ypsilon. It discontinued the 500 in North America this year.
PSA also is likely to leave the segment, with no plans to replace the Citroen C1 and Peugeot 108, built with the Toyota Aygo in a jointly owned factory in Kolin, Czech Republic. PSA will leave the joint venture, and Toyota will take full ownership of the plant in 2021.
Vince Bond Jr. contributed to this report.