Fiat and Chrysler report big first quarter losses

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Italian car manufacturer Fiat has revealed it made a loss of 25m euros (£21.7m; $33.4m) for the first quarter of this year and this comes despite the recent recovery in the global car market.

At the same time its US subsidiary Chrysler has lost a further $197m (£128m) – adding to the massive $3.8bn it lost following bankruptcy last year. But Fiat boss Sergio Marchionne was quick to point out that Chrysler actually made a profit of $143m for the first quarter, if tax and one-off costs were disregarded.

Fiat is due to outline a new five-year business plan later, outlining closer integration with Chrysler.

Despite the losses, Fiat said its sales – which include trucks and farming equipment alongside cars – were up nearly 15% on the same period last year.
Car sales alone saw a 22% increase, thanks in part to the continuing impact of Europe’s car scrappage schemes.

But Fiat said it expected to be hit hard by the winding up of such schemes with the end of the German scrappage scheme for example seeing sales drop 733 percent..

Fiat’s chief executive Sergio Marchionne also sought to sound optimistic over the prospects for Chrysler despite the heavy losses.