Fiat Aims High With Powertrain

Italy's Fiat Auto SpA, seeking to capitalize on one of its crucial advantages in the European market, is bringing its vast array of passenger- and commercial-vehicle powertrain units under one roof: Fiat Powertrain Technologies.

The objective is to sell Fiat's powertrain systems to other auto makers throughout the world and build revenue (see story, p.28).

Fiat says the new business unit will begin with an annual output of more than 2.2 million engines, two million transmissions and annual revenues totaling more than €6 billion ($7.7 billion).

More than 23,000 employees will be part of the new organization, including 11,000 from Fiat Auto, 7,200 from Iveco and 3,800 from Magneti Marelli Powertrain.

The unit will focus on cultivating partnerships. General Motors Corp., which gained access to Fiat's diesel technology when the companies paired in 2000, has installed Fiat diesels in many European products and will continue to do so even though the two auto makers have separated.

In 1998, Fiat agreed to sell its JTD common-rail patents to Robert Bosch GmbH so the supplier could put the technology into production. Today, the Fiat-developed technology is ubiquitous in the industry. Fiat lost out on billions in potential revenue by selling the technology.