Fiat to put Jeep on Alfa platform

"It's the new Jeep, isn't it?"

This from the Ausjeep Offroad forum. Nothing to do with New Zealand, at least not yet, but I couldn't resist posting it for your amusement … er, information.

It's beginning to look like Fiat's plan for Chrysler includes heavier use of the C-EVO platform that underpins the Alfa Romeo Giulietta. There's already going to be a Dodge based off the C-EVO, and Fiat has just laid out plans to build a new Jeep model on the platform at the company's Mirafiori plant.

The Jeep will share the production line with Alfa models, and Fiat is trying to get the work rules tweaked to help support the 280,000 vehicle per year volume.

Most of the Italian-built Jeeps will be exported, mainly to the United States. Engines and transmissions will come from Chrysler's US operations, at least for vehicles headed here. Fiat and Chrysler are sharing plants and volume with apparent ease, with a planned Maserati SUV coming out of Detroit's Jefferson North plant and sharing much with the excellent Jeep Grand Cherokee. A mid-size Fiat SUV is also expected to use the Dodge Journey as a canvas; all moves that underscore how stingy things were under Daimler.