Fiat – Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne has confirmed Chrysler will file initial public offering (IPO) documents with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission before the end of the month.  Just 16.6 percent of the company will initially be listed on the stock market. �

“All the work, all the preparation, the drafts have gone through,” explained Marchionne in an interview with The Financial Times. “We should be ready to file within the third week of this month.” 

The IPO is a last resort in the negotiations between Fiat, which currently holds a 58.5-percent stake in Chrysler, and VEBA, the UAW trust that owns the rest of the automaker.  Marchionne has been trying to unify the company for four years but the two parties have not managed to agree on a fair price.  Fiat is willing to pay up to $4.2 billion for the rest of Chrysler while VEBA maintains its shares are worth a lofty $10.3 billion.  Generally outspoken, Marchionne recently joked VEBA should buy a lottery ticket if it wants to get over $5 billion for its shares.

Listing of Chrysler on the stock market will enable Fiat and VEBA to determine the true value of Chrysler, but the IPO presents risks for both parties.  If shares soar, Fiat will end up spending considerably more than planned; If shares drop, VEBA stands to lose a lot of money.  

Marchionne indicated Chrysler could return to the stock market before the end of the year but he prefers to wait until after the holiday season.  Analysts believe the automaker will be listed in New York in the first quarter of 2014.

Photo by Ronan Glon.

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Rolls-Royce’s CEO has changed gears and now says the ultra-luxury automaker is still considering the launch of a new SUV model. Rolls’ CEO previous denied that such plans were in the works.

“We are intensively thinking about entering the SUV segment,” Rolls-Royce CEO Torsten Mueller-Oetvoes told Bloomberg in an interview at the Frankfurt Motor Show.

Rolls-Royce’s utility vehicle would compete with Bentley’s upcoming SUV as well as Land Rover’s all-new Range Rover line, which will soon include a long-wheelbase model. However, while those competitors are expected to sell between $100,000-$180,000, Rolls-Royce’s SUV will likely command north of $200,000.

“The SUV segment is very interesting,” Mueller-Oetvoes said. “It has been incredibly stable during the crisis, and I think a luxury niche will develop.”

Rolls-Royce isn’t the only luxury automaker jumping into the SUV segment. Maserati will launch its Jeep Grand Cherokee-based Levante in 2015 and Jaguar previewed an upcoming utility vehicle with the C-X17 concept in Frankfurt. Mercedes-Benz, Audi and BMW (which owns Rolls-Royce) are also said to be in the midst of a widespread SUV/CUV expansion.

The Rolls-Royce SUV is still in the early stages of planning, meaning it will be at least four years before we see the vehicle in showrooms.

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Suzuki has announced a recall covering nearly 200,000 vehicles in the United States. Suzuki no longer sells its car and trucks on these shores, but the Japanese automaker is still on the hook for any defects that could compromise safety.

Suzuki issued a recall on Monday covering 2006-11 Grand Vitara models and SX4s from the 2007-11 model years for an airbag defect. In all the recall includes 193,936 vehicles.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the airbag sensor in the front passenger seat of the vehicles involved in the recall may become disconnected “as a result of repeated flexing of the mat from use of the seat.” If that sensor fails, the front airbag will deploy “regardless of whether the front seat occupant is an adult or a child.”

The airbag system is designed to shutoff when a child is detected in the front seat in order to prevent injuries from the force of the bag going off.

No accidents or injuries have been linked to the defect.

Since Suzuki no longer operates on these shores, there is no current timeline for when the recall might be resolved. Suzuki will notify owners of the recall next month, but the company doesn’t know when it will have the parts to fix the problem.

Photo by Mark Elias.<![CDATA[
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Aston Martin’s new crop of AMG-powered vehicles won’t bow for another three to four years, Mercedes-Benz Chief Executive Officer Dr. Dieter Zetsche has revealed.

Aston Martin announced a technical partnership with Mercedes’ performance division in July, but failed to mention when the first AMG-powered cars might hit the market. Aston Martin said only that the AMG-sourced engines would debut in its next-generation vehicles.

However, Mercedes CEO Dr. Z clarified the timeframe for the partnership on the sidelines of the Frankfurt Motor Show.

“Aston’s new investor was convinced that it would be helpful to associate with someone with experience in fast car technology,” Zetsche told Auto Express. “When you make decisions like this it usually takes three to four years to see the results.”

The AMG-sourced engines – which will likely be turbocharged V8s – are expected to debut in Aston Martin’s next-generation DB9 and Vantage models.

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The world may be waiting for a turbocharged version of the Scion FR-S (which is sold as the GT86 in other global markets) but Toyota is quietly developing a hybrid drivetrain to boost the performance of the sporty coupe.

Speaking in an interview with Autocar, Koei Saga, senior manager for drivetrain engineering, revealed that the “development work is quite advanced” on a hybrid drive system for the FR-S. Saga indicated that the system under development borrows elements from Toyota production and racing hybrid systems.

“We are quite prepared because we do have a hybrid system that we can use for that kind of vehicle, utilizing the production passenger car hybrid system, and we also have the pure race-oriented hybrid system [in the TS030 LMP1 racer and Prius GT300 from Japan's Super GT series].”

Showing that it’s not opposed to using hybrid systems for performance applications, Toyota displayed a 414 horsepower Hybrid R concept at the recent Frankfurt Motor Show. The Hybrid R show car used a six-speed sequential gearbox, which would make more sense for the performance-oriented FR-S hybrid than a CVT.

Toyota hasn’t approved the FR-S hybrid just yet, but Saga says that he expects the “green light will come.”

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