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Fiat will use its recently acquired Bertone plant near Turin to produce up to 50,000 units annually of two Chrysler based vehicles for sale in Europe. Fiat Group’s head of business development Alfredo Altavilla, told the unions that the new vehicles will be based on Chrysler’s large-car platform and will use Chrysler’s V6 engines.

Altavilla said that Fiat will officially announce the brand and the models that will be built at the plant in its 5-year plan on Nov. 4.

Sources say that Officine Automobilistiche Grugliasco (OAG) plant will use the rear-wheel-drive platform of the Chrysler 300C and the new Pentastar V6 gasoline engine, which is scheduled to debut in the 2011 Jeep Grand Cherokee.

Insiders say that the first vehicle could be a Lancia Thesis sedan and the second model, due out in 2012, could be an entry-level Maserati sedan.

- By Stephen Calogera

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