Chrysler Boss: Please Don't Buy My Car!

Sergio Marchionne is the president of the company that makes automobiles like Chrysler and Fiat. He's credited with managing Chrysler out of bankruptcy and for turning Fiat around when it was doing rather poorly a few years ago. But now he has a problem. California has this thing about mandating that at least some of the cars you sell must have zero-emissions. And, at least for the moment, electric cars are the easiest way to meet the mandate. 

So Fiat-Chrysler sells their tiny little Fiat 500e electric car, which meets the requirements to a T. And therein lies the problem. It seems that ever time somebody buys one of these little cars, the company loses money. And Marchionne doesn't like losing money - that's not why they hired him in the first place, to make money, not to lose it. So, he told a Washington, D.C., conference last week that he would prefer no one buy the $32,650 Fiat 500e, which is actually considered a beautifully done, and practical electric car. "I hope you don't buy it because every time I sell one it costs me $14,000," he is quoted as having said. It's not the first time that plain-speaking Marchionne has decried the costs of electric cars. Previously, he pegged the losses at $10,000 a car. Lucky for him, electric cars are still generally a tough sell with consumers because of their limited range. Even though, the Fiat 500e goes 87 miles between charges.

It's a strange request from a world in which automotive CEOs are usually doing everything they can to hype their product lines, lure customers to showrooms, and as they say in the trade, "put butts in seats."