Fiat may sell car platform to Guangzhou Auto

Shanghai, September 12 (Gasgoo.com) Fiat has been in talks with Guangzhou Automobile over technical cooperation as the Italian car maker strives to progress in China, and the possible mode of partnership is Fiat's selling of a car platform to Guangzhou Auto, said China Auto News today.

Guangzhou Auto, after Chery Auto and Zotye Auto, is the third Chinese carmaker that Fiat has recently approached for cooperation since ending its joint venture with Nanjing Auto. "We have discussed technical cooperation with Guangzhou Automobile," Paolo Arpellino, Fiat's chief of China operations, told reporters. Fiat in Italy was not immediately available to comment.

Sources familiar with the matter said Fiat could sell one of its existing platforms to Guangzhou Auto, which is striving to develop its own brand manufacturing project while cooperating with Japanese auto-makers Toyota and Honda. Fiat's technological support, based on one of its platforms, may help Guangzhou Auto achieve this independent brand goal.

This pattern of cooperation is similarly used in Fiat's selling a previous-generation model to Zotye, but there is difference that Fiat hopes to have broader and deeper partnership with Guangzhou Auto, especially in OEM projects and setting up a joint venture.

Fiat's current deal to build a car manufacturing venture in the country with Chery Auto, China's fourth-largest car maker, continued satisfactorily, Arpellino noted, adding that Fiat was open to other deals in China.

Late last year, Fiat pulled out of a loss-making car venture with Nanjing Auto after the firm was merged with SAIC Motor.