Fiat Chrysler boss Sergio Marchionne has reconfirmed his plans to build a Ferrari SUV – but reassured fans it will not dilute the brand’s DNA.
The colourful CEO initially indicated his intention to build an SUV – or FUV (Ferrari Utility Vehicle) in November 2017 and has since seen Lamborghini enter the market by launching the Urus.
• Detroit Motor Show 2018 news
At the 2018 Detroit Motor Show, Marchionne went on the record again about his plans. Dismissing suggestions the brand would build a truck, he stated: “It will look like whatever a Ferrari utility vehicle needs to look like”, but insisted “it has to drive like a Ferrari.”
The plan has outraged some Ferrari purists, but with FCA striving to become profitable there appears to be solid business logic behind the plan to follow Ferrari’s rivals into the SUV segment. Marchionne claimed the company will be debt free in 2018, despite missing sales targets – an SUV wearing the badge of his most coveted brand seems inevitable.
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However, he acknowledged the sensitivities surrounding the project and admitted: “There would be enough people even outside Ferrari who would go for me if I did ‘just a utility vehicle’.”
With Bentley and Lamborghini entering the SUV market in recent years, and Rolls-Royce about to with the Cullinan, Ferrari is the last of the high-performance or super-luxury makers to commit to this area of the market.
Ferrari warming to SUV model
Towards the latter stages of 2017, Marchionne confirmed that there was strong possibility of an SUV bearing the prancing horse in the next few years.
Speaking to Bloomberg, Marchionne, CEO of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, confirmed that it is “dead serious” about producing a Ferrari SUV, while also rubbishing rumours that FCA will part ways with SUV subsidiary Jeep.
Referring to the vehicle as the ‘FUV’ (Ferrari Utility Vehicle), Marchionne, 65, had previously played down the rumours of a Ferrari crossover, but then said Ferrari would take about 30 months to consider production of the vehicle. He said: “We need to learn how to master this whole new relationship between exclusivity and scarcity of product, then we’re going to balance this desire to grow with a widening of the product portfolio.”
Sources cited by the Bloomberg news agency suggested that the ‘Ferrari Utility Vehicle’ could form part of a new five-year-plan designed to boost sales beyond Ferrari’s current self-imposed limit of 10,000 cars per year.
The firm primarily keeps to this limit to stay on the correct side of emissions rulings in some markets, though it ensures a level of exclusivity for the brand too.
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Having previously strongly denied that Ferrari would ever venture into the SUV segment, Marchionne reiterated that Ferrari would not be creating an SUV in the mould of those offered by other manufacturers and that “you have to shoot me first” if it did. “It has not been done to compete with Porsche” he said, referencing the German brand’s hugely profitable move into the SUV sector with its Cayenne.
It’s understood that further hybridisation of the Ferrari range is also under consideration, to ensure it can continue to grow sales without breaking emissions rules.
Bloomberg reported that we could get our first official inkling of the brand’s long term plan sometime in 2018. Should Ferrari decide to go down the SUV avenue, it will be among the final acts of Marchionne, who will step down as boss of the Fiat Chrysler Group in 2019, followed by bowing out of Ferrari in 2021.
Bloomberg sources said an SUV act as a “four-seat family car that offers more space than Ferrari’s current two-door GT4CLusso”, and would be centred mainly around Asian markets, with Chinese customers in Ferrari’s marketing crosshairs.
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