Fiat announced late on Thursday that it will slash investments in Europe by 500 million euros this year as fears of an extended market slump take hold. New car sales in Europe have fallen for eight straight months, including an 8.4 percent dip in May.
"The capital expenditure reduction is about half a billion euros from what we planned last year for 2012 in Europe,"Â Chief Executive Officer Sergio Marchionne told
Bloomberg. Fiat planned to invest about 7.5 billion euros this year, but will now spend 7 billion euros.
In addition to reducing investments, Fiat is also delaying the market launches of some vehicles to save cash. Fiat's new Grand Punto was slated to launch in early 2013, but that launch date is now uncertain as Marchionne named the car as "one of the projects we are reconsidering in line with the changes."Â
Fiat's European sales are down about 17 percent this year and Marchionne doesn't foresee a recovery during the second half.
Fiat announced earlier this month that it was
closing its European HQ for several days in order to save $10 million.
