New Maserati reflects globalized auto industry

By Frank Fuhrig Jan 11, 2012, 8:38 GMT

Detroit - The silver car spinning slowly on a turntable near the centre of the Detroit auto show was fundamentally similar to other models that blend the elements of a luxury sedan with a sport-utility vehicle.

Setting the car apart however were the ultra-sleek European styling, oval grille and three-pronged trident badge of Maserati, the Italian sports luxury brand - not to mention a price tag of well over 100,000 dollars when it reaches the market as early as 2013.

But like the more humble cars that fill the rest of the market, the Kubang will be the product of a global effort.

The model presented in Detroit is still a prototype. The styling and technical work are both being done by the company's designers in Modena, and it will have the same supple, Italian leather interior that Maserati buyers take for granted.

But the Kubang is based on the same platform used in the Jeep Grand Cherokee, which starts at a measly 30,000 dollars. Jeep is part of US-based Chrysler, in which Fiat took a majority stake during the US company's 2009 government-aided bankruptcy reorganization.

The Modena designers are reworking the American chassis, while the Kubang's eight-cylinder engine will come from Italian sports car maker Ferrari, which is also part of the Fiat stable. Maserati's own engineers are developing the suspension, steering, brakes and electronics, which will be exclusive to the Kubang.

Sergio Marchionne, chief executive of Fiat and Chrysler, announced Tuesday that the Kubang will be built at Chrysler's Jefferson North assembly plant on Detroit's east side, where production of the hot-selling Grand Cherokee is already in high gear.

'We are getting a lot of confidence in the ability of that plant to make superb products, and to just really start making luxury, upper-end vehicles without necessarily having to apologize for the fact that it is Michigan-based,' Marchionne said.

'It sets a new benchmark for what the United States car industry can and should produce.'

So the Kubang will be a European sport-utility vehicle with a Ferrari engine, a Jeep-based frame, designed in Italy and assembled by US workers. Marchionne said that the company plans to export 20,000 around the world annually.

The Kubang is the child of Fiat and Chrysler, and descended from the Fiat acquisitions of previous decades.

On the same day that Marchionne was introducing his new baby to North America, he issued an ambiguous denial of an Italian newspaper report that Fiat might enter talks for an alliance with France's PSA Peugeot Citroen.

His declaration of 'no ongoing discussions' failed to squelch the speculation, fed by his assertion in Detroit on Monday that the industry needed further consolidation to create a second European car group of comparable size to Germany's Volkswagen.

Companies hope that getting larger will help them to deliver more competitive products while reducing costs.

The Kubang shows how European sports car expertise can be blended with American know-how in sport-utility vehicles to enter a new market segment, while spreading research and development costs.

The only competitor for the Kubang as a luxury performance SUV is the Porsche Cayenne.

Fiat's re-entry to the US market through its tie-up with Chrysler has the additional benefit of spreading macroeconomic risks.

US car sales were up more than 10 per cent in 2011 and are projected to grow further this year, with Chrysler gaining US market share, even as Fiat's European home market is in the doldrums with a eurozone recession looming.

General Motors, meanwhile, is seeking to compete head-on with luxury carmakers - both in the US and eventually worldwide.

The company's 110-year-old Cadillac line on Sunday unveiled its new ATS compact sedan to rival the Mercedes C Class and BMW 3 Series, in a segment of the luxury market that GM has never effectively contested.

'It is our vision to make (Cadillac) a global luxury brand,' Joel Ewanick, GM's global chief marketing officer, told a group of journalists on the sidelines of the Detroit show.

The ATS - freshly designed from the ground up, notably unlike the Kubang - is part of a GM effort to expand both Cadillac and Chevrolet into viable global brands.

'Chevrolet is our global mass brand - no doubt,' Ewanick said. 'It will be the brand that we compete in, in 140 countries around the world.'

Meanwhile, Volkswagen and Porsche continue to tighten their alliance.

Echoing Fiat's plans to build the Kubang at a Chrysler plant, Porsche boss Matthias Mueller told financial news agency dpa-AFX in Detroit that supplemental assembly of its Boxster and Cayman models could be carried out if necessary at a Volkswagen subsidiary in Germany.