Chrysler CEO: Jeep not moving to China
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney listens in on conference call with advisers aboard his campaign bus en route to a campaign rally at Avon Lake High School on October 29, 2012, in Avon Lake, Ohio. Romney has canceled other campaign events on October 29 and 30 due to Hurricane Sandy. / Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
The head of Chrysler responded to repeated claims by the Romney campaign, including a new radio ad out today, that the company is ramping up production in China instead of the United States.
"I feel obliged to unambiguously restate our position: Jeep production will not be moved from the United States to China," Fiat-Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne wrote in a blog post on the company's website today. The statement comes as the Romney campaign doubled down on the claim, which fact-checkers have also deemed false, with a new radio ad in Ohio.
"In fact, U.S. production of our Jeep models has nearly tripled (it is expected to be up 185%) since 2009 in order to keep up with global demand," Marchionne wrote.
The Romney campaign's new radio ad, which is airing in Toledo, Ohio - ground zero for the debate on the auto bailout - says, "Barack Obama says he saved the auto industry. But for who? Ohio or China?"
"[N]ow comes word that Chrysler is starting to build cars in, you guessed it, China," the narrator adds.
This is the second Romney ad in recent days on the issue airing in Ohio. "Obama took GM and Chrysler into bankruptcy and sold Chrysler to Italians who are going to build Jeeps in China," the ad's narrator says in a TV spot released over the weekend. "Mitt Romney will fight for every American job."
The Romney campaign has defended the claim, saying they are not claiming that jobs are "moving" to China but that additional jobs are being created there.
Chrysler does have plans to start Jeep production in China but for the Chinese market. "We are working to establish a global enterprise and previously announced our intent to return Jeep production to China, the world's largest auto market, in order to satisfy local market demand, which would not otherwise be accessible," Marchionne wrote in his blog post.
The Obama campaign has slammed Romney on the issue of the auto bailout for months in the Rust Belt, insisting that Romney would have "let Detroit go bankrupt." The phrase comes from the headline of a 2008 op-ed Romney wrote in the New York Times - though Romney didn't use those words in his article, nor did he actually write the headline - where he laid out his opposition to a government bailout of the auto industry and insisted on a managed bankruptcy.
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"The volume opportunity for us [in China] is very significant," Mr. Manley was quoted as saying.
"We're reviewing the opportunities within existing capacity" as well as "should we be localizing the entire Jeep portfolio or some of the Jeep portfolio."
"Localizing" == locally manufacture for local consumption
"Jeep portfolio" == the entire Jeep model line-up (Wrangler, Grand Cherokee, etc)
Manley's statement, even as you have written it, is crystal clear: Chrysler is considering building some or all of its Jeep models in China FOR CHINESE CONSUMPTION. Otherwise, the Jeep brand will not enjoy any sales in China, which represents a HUGE market that could foreseeably bolster the Jeep name worldwide.
"The volume opportunity for us [in China] is very significant," Mr. Manley was quoted as saying.
"We're reviewing the opportunities within existing capacity" as well as "should we be localizing the entire Jeep portfolio or some of the Jeep portfolio."
http://washingtonexaminer.com/jeep-an-obama-favorite-looks-to-shift-production-to-china/article/2511703#.UJGtlxy4GSg
"The Romney campaign has defended the claim, saying they are not claiming that jobs are "moving" to China but that additional jobs are being created there. " That's not what Rmoney said to his audience in Ohio. He said Jeep jobs are going to Ohio. Go listen to his speech. As usual Romney lies and his campaign walks it back.
=======================
Most of us remember that this is exactly what Mitt said. We questioned it then, we laugh about it now.
Yes, let's listen to GM :
"We've clearly entered some parallel universe during these last few days," GM spokesman Greg Martin said.
"No amount of campaign politics at its cynical worst will diminish our record of creating jobs in the U.S. and repatriating profits back to this country," (...)
GM hasn't even repaid all that is owed to the American Taxpayers
Now they are not only moving their production facilites over seas, but on the verge of shutting down more of their facilities here in the U.S.
GM has squandered all the help that they got from us taxpayers. They are doing not much better than they were two years ago.
When will we stop this one way giving? When will we demand that GM stand up and be counted as to what they are, who they want to be and how they intend to pay for it?
If it is another bail-out, they are in for a rude surprise.
Fiat, which owns U.S. carmaker Chrysler, also will unveil a new smaller Jeep for production in Italy and focus the Fiat brand on the 500 and Panda compact car lines.
The 19 new models to be made in Italy for Europe and export, including to the U.S
http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/cars/2012/10/30/fiat-chrysler-europe-earnings/1668607/
Fiat, which owns U.S. carmaker Chrysler, also will unveil a new smaller Jeep for production in Italy and focus the Fiat brand on the 500 and Panda compact car lines.
The 19 new models to be made in Italy for Europe and export, including to the U.S
http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/cars/2012/10/30/fiat-chrysler-europe-earnings/1668607/
Only one problem with this article. Fiat controls 58% of Chrysler and can do whatever they want with it.
Mitt Romney has rightfully criticized the Obama Administration for handing over Chrysler to the Italians and now leaving the fate of American workers in the hands of Fiat management. Fiat is not a healthy company and the auto industry is in as great a risk as ever.
General Motors' CEO, Dan Akerson, said it best when he said, "The good thing about our bankruptcy is that it took only 39 days. The bad news is that bankruptcy took only 39 days. If we had been there longer, people would have asked these questions and looked at these things."
The whole auto industry bailout process was rushed through with the wrong primary motivation of protecting the politically powerful UAW's interests. The Obama Administration never considered that giving Chrysler to Fiat was not a great idea and could eventually hurt the same UAW workers it was trying to protect.