Chrysler is shaking up its fledgling Fiat North America division. The brand is replacing Laura Soave with Timothy Kuniskis.
Sales of the brand’s only car, the Fiat 500, have been far below expectations.
This year, Fiat had hoped to sell 50,000 of its minicars in the U.S., but it has sold only about 16,000.
The departure of Soave is not a surprise. Last week during a press conference, Fiat and Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne said Soave was head of the brand “for the time being.”
Marchionne blames lagging sales of the Fiat 500 mainly on a very slow launch of Fiat 500 dealerships, rather than on the car.
Chrysler had planned to have 130 dealerships open for business by now, but it only has about 60.