At the Management Briefing Seminars on Friday, Chrysler LLC’s purchasing chief John Campi spoke about new approach to dealing with the automaker’s suppliers in order to maintain good relationships.

The purchasing chief also announced the automaker’s goal to cut its supply costs by 25 percent within three years with a new approach to launch a “supplier of choice” program in which Chrysler will have not more than ten suppliers. The suppliers will become partners of the automaker in the development for vehicles they supply. (more…)

Chrysler LLC plans to build the new Jeep Grand Cherokee in 2010, as said the company’s Vice chairman Tom LaSorda on Thursday. The new vehicle will get a unibody construction, variable valve timing and a fuel-efficient V6 engine.

The automaker also said that it will spend $1.8 billion in retooling the Jefferson North Assembly Plant in Detroit. The plant will produce the Jeep Grand Cherokee which will use Chrysler’s new Phoenix powertrains. 

LaSorda said, “This investment in our future products and at Jefferson North will enable the Company to produce a future generation of vehicles more efficiently, with world-class quality and an improved environmental footprint,” “Furthermore, this commitment reinforces the long-standing partnership between Chrysler LLC, the City of Detroit and the State of Michigan.” (more…)

In order to reduce travel and energy expense, Chrysler LLC is on negotiating terms with United Auto Workers Union, to put all the factory employees on four-working days with ten hour shifts from a five, eight hour days shift.

The manufacturing chief of the company, Frank Ewasyshyn said that this new curriculum would certainly affect most of its plants excluding those who are already involved in overtime, like Belvidere assembly in Illinois and Sterling Heights assembly in suburban Detroit. “The remaining plants likely would qualify,” Ewasyshyn confirmed the statement at the Management Briefing Seminars. (more…)

Just two weeks after Chrysler Financial annunciate that it was exiting the auto leasing business, company’s two top executives stepped down from their individual positions.
Paul Knauss, who was the financial president and CEO of the company and William Jones, who was the COO, both declared their retirement immediately after the announcement made by the company.

Thomas Gilman will take the place of Paul Knauss as the CEO and vice chairman of the company. He has earlier served as the Chief Financial Officer of the company and was most recently a senior advisor for Cerberus, which is the private equity owner of Chrysler. (more…)

In order to settle a shareholder lawsuit, General Motors is planning to pay 277 million dollars pertaining to the fact that the automaker misled its investors which directly led to the inflation of its stock price.

The settlement also comprises of a 26 million dollar payment from Deloitte & Touche, which is the independent auditor for GM’s financial statements.

The cash-strapped automaker which is already involved in a number of cost cutting exercises wants to cover much of the charge through insurance. The automaker said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that it will cover $200 million of the charge by insurance. The charge of the lawsuit is more than half the $445 million profit, that the company made in its second quarter for its operations in Latin America. (more…)

At a public hearing of National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) on new CAFE standards, the administration drew opposition from automotive industry advocates and critics on Monday.

In the United States the Corporate Average Fuel Economy or CAFE regulations are designed to reduce energy consumption by increasing the fuel economy of cars and light trucks. Congress passed a bill late last year that mandated NHTSA to set standards requiring cars and light trucks to achieve a 35 miles per gallon fleet average by 2020, or go beyond that level if possible. (more…)