Euro crisis too big to plan for, Marchionne says

Fiat and Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne said a serious escalation of the euro zone debt crisis is too big an event for European industry to plan for.

“You can do all planning you like, these are such seismic movements that no plan will work,” Marchionne was quoted as saying on Friday by Reuters. Fiat CEO also said if a country would exit from the euro zone area, Fiat would be affected, but it would not be in danger of collapse. “Even in the case of an absolute calamity in Italy, which would have disastrous impacts on companies that are totally Italian, our reality is different… we would be able to recover elsewhere”, Marchionne said.

Daimler CEO Dieter Zetsche said Europe’s auto sector had experienced “no dramatic effects” so far from the debt crisis, but warned the risks to carmakers remained serious. “Given the weak macroeconomic environment in Europe, the short term outlook for vehicle sales is what worries us,” Zetsche said.

He stressed that European car sales will be stable or slightly lower in 2012 if EU leaders find a lasting solution to the crisis. “If, on the other hand, the crisis of confidence is further increasing, you would have to calculate with a recession in Europe, which then would have its impact on automotive markets as well,” Zetsche added.

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• Sergio Marchionne: “With every Fiat 500 EV sold we will lose $10.000”
• Moody’s cuts FIAT’s rating
• Maserati will make the Baby Quattroporte in ex-Bertone factory
• MAN expects lower demand in 2012
• Fiat’s 2012 sales forecast revised downward by 500,000 units
• Fiat willing to buy Canada’s Chrysler stock
• Fiat could export Europe-made Jeeps to the U.S.