Fiat Chief Executive Sergio Marchionne's Vision

Milan May 4, 2009; Reuters reported that Fiat Chief Executive Sergio Marchionne is trying to put together an automotive empire that combines the Italian group's core car business with the European operations of General Motors.

Including Fiat's planned takeover of U.S. car maker Chrysler , the combined group would be the world's second-largest automaker with about 80 billion euros ($106.3 billion) in revenue and annual sales of 6-7 million units.

Here is how Fiat and GM Europe line up:

FIAT

Europe's sixth-largest carmaker by unit sales posted 59.4 billion euros in group revenue last year and has almost 200,000 staff. It is Italy's largest industrial group.

Based in the northwestern Italian city of Turin, Fiat makes cars, vans, trucks and engines. Its brands include Fiat, Lancia, Alfa Romeo, Ferrari, Maserati and Iveco. Its U.S. unit, CNH Global NV (CNH.N), makes agricultural combines and tractors.

Marchionne has said he could combine Fiat's core car business with that of GM Europe and spin off the combined "Fiat/Opel" group.

The core Fiat Group Automobiles business (which does not include the luxury Ferrari and Maserati brands) had 2008 sales of nearly 27 billion euros. It delivered 2.15 million cars and light commercial vehicles and employed 52,634 staff.

The core car business has five plants in Italy, two in Brazil, one in Argentina and one in Poland, excluding joint ventures and plants producing under license.

ITALY

Plant Workforce

Mirafiori (Turin) 10,700

Cassino - Piedimonte S. Germano 4,000

Giambattista Vico 5,000

Melfi 5,200

Termini Imerese 1,400 BRAZIL

Betim-Minas Gerais 8,700

Sete Lagoas Minas Gerais 1,200 ARGENTINA

Cordoba 700 POLAND

Tychy 5,800

GM EUROPE

The loss-making European arm sold just over 2 million vehicles in 2008 and generated $34.4 billion in revenue. Its market share fell to 9.3 percent from 9.5 percent in 2007.

It operates 10 vehicle production and assembly plants in seven countries and employed 54,500 at the end of 2008.

Its top five markets were Germany, Russia, France, Britain and Italy.

German group Adam Opel GmbH and its British sister brand, Vauxhall, accounted for just under 1.46 million unit sales last year.

The main Opel plants include: GERMANY

Plant Workforce

Ruesselsheim 16,000

Bochum 5,300

Eisenach 1,800

Kaiserslautern 2,300 SPAIN

Zaragoza 5,780 POLAND

Gliwice 3,120 BELGIUM

Antwerp 2,380 BRITAIN

Ellesmere Port 3,560 RUSSIA

St. Petersburg 800 SWEDEN

Trollhattan 1,380

Source: Fiat and GM Europe websites