China's Chery: Moving Forward With Chrysler Despite Nissan Link

China's Chery: Moving Forward With Chrysler Despite Nissan Link

By Michelle Krebs April 15, 2008

So now that Chrysler has cut a deal with Nissan to make its small cars, what’s up with China’s Chery Automobile Co., which was supposed to be providing Chrysler with a small vehicle platform by now?

There’s room for both, Chrysler Vice Chairman Thomas LaSorda said in a conference call Monday. In fact, he said, the deal with Chery is proceeding, but he gave no timeframe for introduction of Chery-built Chryslers.

“Our discussions with Chery are proceeding aggressively,” he said. “We’ve moved resources there –- our people are [engineers] to work aggressively to ready future platforms.”

LaSorda said the Chery-based Chryslers will first go on sale in outside of Western Europe and countries covered by the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which include the U.S., Canada and Mexico. He said Chrysler has a date in mind an on-sale date for those markets, but he’s not telling. After that, Chrysler will launch the Chery-based vehicle in NAFTA countries and Western Europe.

“We do not have a year for when they will be available in NAFTA markets or Western Europe,” he said.

LaSorda said Chrysler has plenty of room for more than one small car in its portfolio. It currently has not even one. He noted that the world demand for the small B-segment cars, like the Nissan Versa and Honda Fit, is more than 10 million units a year. And B-segment cars are growing in popularity in the U.S. as well as gas prices soar. Last year, about 330,000 small cars were sold in the U.S.; in a market that has been down so far, small car sales have increased 32 percent, he noted.

Michelle Krebs:  is Editor-in-Chief of AutoObserver.com. Follow @AutoObserver on Twitter.