Windsor, Ontario January 18 (Reuters)Chrysler Group Chief Executive Sergio Marchionne vowed on Tuesday to keep the automaker on top of the minivan market in North America and said the company would develop a new type of minivan by 2014.
Chrysler, which popularized minivans in 1983 under former CEO Lee Iacocca, will"rethink" the minivan to make it more versatile, Marchionne said.
"We're not going to give one inch of territory in terms of our domination of (the minivan) segment," Marchionne told workers at the Windsor Assembly Plant, where the Dodge Grand Caravan and Chrysler Town& Country minivans are made.
A fresh architecture for a new generation of minivans will be introduced in 2013 or 2014, Marchionne said. Hybrid minivans are also planned for production at the Windsor plant.
It is possible that Chrysler could also make a full-size car -- known as an E-segment vehicle -- on the new platform. Marchionne said Chrysler could make Fiat models as well.
"We need to upgrade this and make it a much more versatile platform and one that will allow us to be able to make more than just minivans," Marchionne said.
Marchionne is betting that the automaker's slate of 16 new and refreshed vehicles will help revive Chrysler, which nearly collapsed in 2009 before a government-funded bankruptcy.
Marchionne thanked the U.S. and Canadian governments for the help and said Chrysler was still working with the Department of Energy for about $3 billion in loans to help refinance debt owed to those governments.
The Windsor plant has built minivans for 28 years. Marchionne said the Town& Country and the Grand Caravan"remain key parts" of the automaker's revival.
Last week, Marchionne told reporters at the Detroit auto show that Chrysler would likely remake one of its two minivans in favor of a smaller"people mover" by 2014.
Chrysler's chief designer Ralph Gilles said on Tuesday that the automaker would monitor minivan sales and performance in 2011 and then decide whether to keep one or both of its minivan models.
The new architecture underpinnings will be"completely different" from the current minivan platform, Gilles told reporters. He said the new platform was still in the"digital ether".
DOE LOANS
Auburn Hills, Michigan-based Chrysler is under management control by Marchionne's Fiat SpA (FIA.MI), which has a 25 percent stake in the automaker.
Chrysler plans to launch an initial public offering in the second half of 2011, but before an IPO, the automaker must refinance about $7.4 billion in government loans from the United States and Canada that bear a crushing interest rate.
The envisaged $3 billion in financing from the U.S. Department of Energy would come at favorable interest rates.
Marchionne said the loans were an important part of Chrysler's refinancing plans. The automaker is also talking to financial institutions to refinance the debt.
"Because of the long-term nature of the DOE funding -- it's a multi-year commitment and we need it to go forward," he told reporters.
In addition to making changes to its minivan lineup, Chrysler will revive the Jeep Wagoneer in 2013 and is developing a Wrangler-based utility vehicle with a pick-up bed that would sell outside North America.
Marchionne confirmed that Chrysler would build a hybrid version of the Chrysler 300 sedan for 2013.
The minivan share of the North American auto market has fallen in the past decade as consumers have favored SUVs and"crossover" vehicles.
The minivan segment of the U.S. auto market dropped to 460,154 sales last year, from 1.37 million in 2000, according to Autodata.
Scott Kunselman, head of Chrysler engineering, said a new"people mover" idea would attract consumers turned off by minivans because of their reputation as vehicles for"soccer moms".
Chrysler's Town& Country overtook the Honda Motor Co (7267.T) Odyssey in 2010 as the best-selling minivan in the U.S. market.
Together, the Town& Country and the Grand Caravan controlled 31.8 percent of the U.S. minivan market in 2010, compared with 15.9 percent for Honda's Odyssey.
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