The Fiat Group has revealed plans to create a new joint venture with its North American partner Chrysler LLC at its historic Mirafiori plant in Turin, Italy. Under the new plan, Fiat will bring a U.S. platform to Turin for production of larger segment passenger cars and SUVs for the Jeep and Alfa Romeo brands.
"These will be flagship models for Jeep and Alfa Romeo, the most international brands of the two Groups with significant development potential globally," said Fiat in a statement.
More than half of the vehicles to be produced at Fiat's Mirafiori plant would be for international markets outside the European Union and especially for North America. Although Fiat did not get into any specific details on the future models, the automaker said that they are expected to come to market in the third and fourth quarters of 2012.
"Bringing this new platform to Mirafiori will result in potential production of up to more than 1,000 vehicles per day or some 250,000-280,000 vehicles per year, resulting in full utilization of the current workforce and opening the way for potential new jobs," said Fiat.
The Italian automaker added that the total investment will be more than €1 billion, divided between Fiat and Chrysler in proportion to volumes produced for each brand.
"This is an extraordinary opportunity for Italian industry to produce cars of quality and prestige. Mirafiori has all the elements necessary to achieve a leap of quality and become a world class plant, producing cars for Europe, North America and other markets around the world," Fiat said in a statement released to the press.
