Chrysler group will build minivans for VW

[Jaguar D-Type]

Chrysler group will build minivans for VW

Automotive News

1/05/2006

The Chrysler group will build minivans for Volkswagen beginning in 2008, the automakers confirmed Thursday.

The Chrysler group is expected to introduce a generation of minivans in 2007 for the 2008 model year, according to the Automotive News Future Product series. The VW vans will be based on those redesigned models.

Sources say the VW minivan will be built at the Chrysler group's assembly plant in St. Louis. In early December, the automaker told of a $1 billion investment in the St. Louis plant to make it more flexible and to prepare it for new models.

Talks for the minivan deal sped up last year after Wolfgang Bernhard, former COO of the Chrysler group, became CEO for the VW brand. Bernhard negotiated the deal with his former boss, DaimlerChrysler CEO Dieter Zetsche.

The deal gives VW dealers a seven-seat minivan. VW dealers had been hoping for a modern version of the classic Microbus, but the German automaker killed that program last year.

Few details of the agreement were released Thursday. VW will determine its own styling for the minivan, a Chrysler group spokesman said. But other details, such as whether the VW version will have its own powertrain, have not been released.

This will be the second instance of the Chrysler group manufacturing a product for another automaker. The Chrysler group builds the Mitsubishi Raider pickup, which shares its platform with the Dodge Dakota, at its assembly plant in Warren, Mich.

[Jaguar D-Type]

Detroit - Jan. 8, 2006

Executives from DaimlerChrysler AG's Chrysler Group and Volkswagen sign the Minivan Manufacturing contract under which Chrysler Group will build VW minivans beginning in 2008. Seated left to right are: CG EVP Global Sales Service and Marketing Joe Eberhardt; Chrysler Group Executive Vice President Product Development Frank Klegon; Chrysler Group Chief Operating Officer Eric Ridenour; Chrysler Group President and CEO Tom LaSorda; Volkswagen AG Volkswagen Brand of Management Chairman Dr. Wolfgang Bernhard; Volkswagen of America CEO Frank Witter; Volkswagen of America Executive Vice President, Volkswagen Brand Adrian Hallmark.

[Jaguar D-Type]

New Volkswagen minivan to feature unique exterior, Chrysler interior

By RICK KRANZ | AUTOMOTIVE NEWS

1/23/06

DETROIT -- Although Volkswagen's new minivan will have unique sheet metal, under the skin it will be essentially a clone of the Chrysler Town & Country and Dodge Grand Caravan.

Chrysler's next-generation minivans are expected to debut in 2007, followed by the VW version in 2008.

VW's primary contribution for the minivan, will be design and styling, says Frank Klegon, executive vice president of product development for the Chrysler group.

"They have some input to characteristics they are looking for, but they will not provide engineering resources," he said.

"It is very much similar to the relationship we did with Mitsubishi and the Raider," said Klegon, who was interviewed at the Detroit auto show.

In September, Mitsubishi introduced the 2006 Raider pickup. The vehicle was engineered by the Chrysler group and is essentially a Dodge Dakota pickup with different sheet metal. The Raider's instrument panel design and much of the interior is shared with the Dakota. Engines and transmissions come from Dodge.

The Raider and Dakota are assembled in Chrysler's plant in Warren, Mich.

Klegon said VW has not locked in the final styling for its minivan. "We have seen it from a perspective of sketches and stuff, but nothing has been built at this point." he said. "It is all still in the evolution phase."

VW will market only a stretched-wheelbase model.

Creed: Minivan will be 'a Volkswagen'

The minivan that Volkswagen is developing from the Chrysler group's platform will have unique sheet metal, says Trevor Creed, Chrysler group senior vice president of design. This month, the companies said that Chrysler will build a version of its next-generation minivan for VW.

Creed was interviewed by Automotive News staff members.

How will you work with VW on styling of the minivan?

Volkswagen has done all of their own styling on the minivan.

Did you get the right to look at it to see if there is any conflict with Chrysler minivans?

Yes, I did. Wolfgang (Bernhard, chairman of the VW brand) asked them to send me photographs of it. There is no conflict. They are obviously doing a Volkswagen, not a Dodge or Chrysler.

Do they get Stow 'n Go seating?

I don't know any of the business agreements.

How does the VW design differ from the Chrysler group design?

All of their sheet metal is unique. All of their glass is the same. That is the big economy of scale in doing it.

The Chrysler minivan is the iconic creator of the segment. Are you concerned about cannibalization?

I didn't have any concerns. It didn't cross my mind.

It is quite common in the business to share. The companies in Europe do that quite a lot. They manage to create unique brand identities for their products.

It never occurred to me for one minute that that would be an issue.

When I saw the styling of the vehicle it is quite distinctive and Volkswageny. And they have done their own interior as well.