Chrysler CEO: Building Cars In China 'Makes Us Stronger At Home'

Wikimedia CommonsIn an interview with NPR broadcast this morning, Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne defended the decision to move production of cars for foreign markets to those locales.

Marchionne, who is also CEO of Fiat, said the Chrysler organization views itself as an American car producer (thus its slogan, "Imported from Detroit").

He told NPR's Renee Montagne some cars, including the Jeep Wrangler and Grand Cherokee, would always be built in the United States.

But he added he would not miss the opportunity to expand overseas:

That doesn’t mean that in order for me to get stronger and better at what I do I will not seize opportunities in other jurisdictions where it is simply impossible to use an American asset base to produce and effectively distribute in that jurisdiction.

It’s impossible to do that in China, it’s impossible to do that in Russia in an effective way. There’s nothing wrong with that. It will make us stronger at home.

In other words, when it is too expensive to ship an American-built car for sale in foreign markets, Chrysler will build it overseas.

Chrysler's expansion in China, to make cars for the Chinese market, was used by Mitt Romney during the presidential campaign to attack the merit of the auto bailout. Romney's claim that Chrysler was moving American jobs overseas was declared the "Lie of the Year" by PolitiFact in December.

Here's the full NPR interview: