Automotive News Canada - March 2018 - v2 - 26

* MARCH 2018

What's next for FCA's
Bigland and Kuniskis?

SAY

WHAT?

Which of Sergio's
'kids' will he
trust in the deep,
dark woods?

SOME AUTOMOTIVE
pundits tried to read between
the lines of Fiat Chrysler's personnel changes in February
involving the reassigning of
Tim Kuniskis, head of passenger-car brands such as Dodge,
Chrysler and Fiat in North
America, as the new global head for Maserati and Alfa
Romeo.
The responsibilities were
removed from former boss
Reid Bigland, 50, who remains
U.S. sales chief and CEO in
Canada.
So, in light of the race
to replace CEO Sergio
Marchionne when he retires
next year, how good were the
changes for Kuniskis, 51, and
how bad for Bigland?
Answer: We don't know. It
appears that Kuniskis is being
thrown to the wolves, though in
Marchionne-speak that's a good

Jaguar Land Rover Canada President Wolfgang
Hoffman on why showroom redesigns are needed

Tim Kuniskis, left, might have
moved ahead of Reid Bigland
as the Fiat Chrysler exec most
likely to go "alone into the
woods." ( P H O TO : F I AT C H RY S L E R )

thing. For guidance (maybe) we
go back to what Marchionne
told Automotive News during
a lengthy interview in August
2015. He was discussing his top
lieutenants: Bigland, Kuniskis,
Jeep brand boss Mike Manley
and CFO Richard Palmer.
"I've got a crew of kids
that are growing properly,"
Marchionne said then.
"I think I will still be afraid
today to let them [go] alone
into the woods because they'll
come back with a [expletive]
bloody nose and no legs, but
there's going to be a point
where I'm going to have to let
them go into the woods alone
and see what they can find."
- ANC

An Alberta dealership donated a 2017 Dodge Grand Caravan
to the Ronald McDonald House in Red Deer.
(PHOTO: SOUTHSIDE DODGE CHRYSLER JEEP RAM)

Charity touched dealership staff
so deeply, they donated a vehicle
General manager
recalls support
during grandson's
premature death

AN ALBERTA DEALERSHIP
made an emotional donation
to charity earlier this year.
Southside Dodge-ChryslerJeep-Ram in Red Deer gave a
2017 Dodge Grand Caravan to
the Central Alberta chapter of
the Ronald McDonald House.
"The Ronald McDonald
House is near and dear to a
few of our staff, and it's so
awesome to be able to give
back," the dealership said on
its Facebook page.
General Manager Rod
Oszust has "a personal indebtness to Ronald McDonald
House," according to the Red

Unfortunately, it's a necessary evil,
so to speak, because if you have the
most beautiful cars in the world, they need to
be in the most beautiful environment.

Deer Express newspaper.
Jan. 24 marked the fouryear anniversary of the death
of Oszust's two-year-old grandson, Lukas Oszust, from complications due to congenital
heart defects.
Lukas spent a lot of time
being treated in hospital,
during which his family
stayed in the Northern Alberta
Ronald McDonald House in
Red Deer.
"Once they got there, they
were immediately part of
the family, and they wished
they had been there from Day
One," Oszust told the paper.
"Until you experience it,
you don't know how important it is to people."
The donated van will allow
RMHC to redirect about $10,000
from its travel-related administrative costs, the Red Deer
Express said. - ANC

JEEPERS!

FCA DESIGNER
RALPH GILLES
USES HIS WRANGLER TO SAVE CRASH VICTIMS
RAISED IN MONTREAL AND NOW FCA'S
global head of design, Ralph Gilles is being
called a hero after happening upon a vehicle
crash near Detroit in late February.
Gilles and his wife were driving home
when they came across the scene of a headon collision between a Ford Edge and a Ford
Fiesta in Addison Township, Mich., a suburb about an hour north of Detroit.
The Fiesta and Edge crashed when the
driver of the Edge crossed the centre line,
police said.
Gilles arrived in his Jeep Wrangler, pulled
off the road, had his wife call 911, and tried
to help. At that moment, a woman driving a
Buick LeSabre crashed into the Fiesta, which
slid into the Edge, setting its engine on fire.
The occupants of the Fiesta were trapped in
their vehicle, so a quick-thinking Gilles used
his Jeep to push the burning Edge away to

the side of the road.
"The only thing I can remember thinking
[is] I've got a Jeep, it's got a bumper on it, I
think I can do this. All I could think about
were the two people still inside the other
car. Luckily, we had the Jeep that night. I
put it in four-wheel-drive, and it worked perfectly," Gilles told the Oxford Leader newspaper.
Gilles was praised for his actions.
"That guy did a pretty heroic thing,"
Fire Chief Jerry Morawski told the paper. "I
think the guy did a great job. It could have
been worse."
The driver of the Edge was under
the influence, according to police, and
was expected to face charges after Misty
Considine, 57, of Goodrich, Mich., a passenger in the Fiesta, later died of her injuries.
- ANC

DEFYING LOGIC: Yukon's solar charging station
How does it work
with only seven
hours of light per
day in the winter?

OK, SO A NEW SINGLE,
solitary public electric-vehicle charging station isn't usually news. Unless maybe that
charging station is solar-powered. In Yukon. Where there
is an average of about seven
hours of daylight between
December and February.
The lack of sunlight didn't
deter the tiny hamlet of
Mount Lorne from install-

Excess solar energy from
the Yukon hamlet of Mount
Lorne's recycling station
feeds a car-charging station.

(PHOTO: ALEXANDRA BYERS/
CBC NEWS)

ing a solar-powered charging
unit at its trash-and-recycling
transfer station. It's being
billed as the territory's first
public EV charging station.
Despite the lack of sunlight, the transfer station's
solar panels were creating

$1.26B
T H I S

N U M B E R

excess energy, which led to
the installation of the $1,700
charging station, according to
the CBC.
"This one is a way for
people in the community to
charge here, and we could
work toward putting a charger in town so that there is an
ability to buy electric vehicles
for use in the Yukon and in
this community," Mike Bailie,
general manager of the transfer station, told the CBC.
Bailie said that people
are considering buying an
EV. There are currently 12
registered in the territory,
according to the Yukon Motor
Vehicles Office. - ANC

The money Ontario Premier
Kathleen Wynne wants the
federal government to give the
province's auto industry to offset
losses she expects from the new
Comprehensive and Progressive
Agreement for Trans-Pacific
Partnership

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Automotive News Canada - March 2018 - v2