Similarly, the Chrysler Town & Country minivan is a slightly more upscale version of the Dodge Grand Caravan. The decision to drop the Town & Country leaves Chrysler Group, often dubbed the “creator of the minivan,” with just one minivan option in its lineup. The axed minivan will likely be replaced with an upscale crossover, Marchionne told Automobile magazine.

Along with trimming its lineup of cars, Chrysler Group is pursuing economies of scale, unifying many vehicles under the same platform to cut development costs. Its CUSW platform, which is the platform for the Dodge Dart, will eventually be used on eight separate small and midsize cars and crossovers in the lineup. One area where Marchionne isn’t scaling back is in the number of Chrysler-affiliated brands. Since 2009, Marchionne has introduced Italy’s Fiat to North America. The company is also developing its high-performance SRT sub-brand into an entire new brand under the Chrysler Group umbrella.

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