Misc
12/12/2019

Influential European Auto Group ACEA To Be Headed By Fiat Chrysler's Manley




The influential auto group of Europe - the European Automobile Manufacturers' Association, or ACEA, has elected the CEO of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, Mike Manley. He will take over the position of from PSA Group CEO Carlos Tavares who served as the president of the group in in 2018 and 2019.
 
The tenure of Manley is for a year and he would be taking up the position starting January 1, 2020. His term can be renewed for an additional year.
 
Currently as a the CEO of FCA, Manley is aiding the Fiat Chrysler Chairman John Elkann, who is also the head of the Agnelli family of Italy that has the controlling shares of FCA, for negotiations of the merger with PSA Group, which in turn is being headed by Tavares. If the merger goes through it would create the fourth largest auto manufacturing company in the world.
 
The UK born Manley has been heading FCA since July 2018 after he took over reigns of the company from the late Sergio Marchionne. He also served as chief operating officer of FCA's Asian operations and was the head of the Jeep and Ram brands.
 
Analysts expect that a deal of merger is likely to be signed by the end of the current year between FCA and PSA, that owns the brands Peugeot and Citroen.
 
15 of the largest Europe-based car, van, bus and truck manufacturers are represented by the ACEA which is based in Brussels.
 
One of the major activities of the group in recent years has been to strongly lobby with regulators and governments to minimize cuts to emissions limits and have argued that automakers do not have enough time to prepare themselves to abide by the more stringent targets. It has also claimed that such strict emission targets would result in the loss of thousands of jobs while auto makers struggle to completely transform to mass produce electric vehicles.
 
However that lobbying effort by the has mostly been unsuccessful because a regulation mandating a 37.5 percent reduction in 2030 from 2020-21 emissions levels was approved and passed by the lawmakers of the European Union. However the REU could review those tight targets, signaled the incoming European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, earlier this week.
 
The primary target for the ACEA for the next year would be to create a roadmap about how its member companies could effectively manage the transition from mass production of conventional vehicles to mass production of carbon-neutral road transport even while making sure that such a transition was also economically and financially viable in the long run for the European auto makers.
 
(Source:www.europe.autonews.com)

Christopher J. Mitchell
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