Melfi Plant Virtual Tour for the first year of Jeep Renegade

• First anniversary of Jeep Renegade production in Italy.
• Over 135,000 units produced in the Italian plant for the European and North American markets.
• FCA Group held a virtual press conference for the first time Over 100 Journalists from 14 countries joined.
• 3,924 pictures and 1,200 minutes of video produced to launch the virtual Renegade Plant visit.

One year after the launch of the Jeep Renegade, the brand is opening the doors of the factory in Basilicata where the first FCA model to be manufactured in collaboration between Italy and the USA is actually assembled. From today, users can connect with the dedicated website and access the "Jeep Melfi Plant Virtual Tour", a fascinating digital journey exploring the entire production cycle of the first Jeep model produced in Italy for the European and North American markets.

Thanks to this new tool, everyone can discover the secrets of one of the most advanced automotive plants in the whole of Europe, currently boasting Silver medal certification from WCM (World Class Manufacturing), an international methodology for optimising the manufacturing cycle. In this plant, almost 8,000 employees and 968 robots produce the Jeep Renegade and Fiat 500X, the latest FCA models for a variety of customers.

In keeping with the pioneering spirit of the Jeep brand, the FCA Group decided for the first time ever to hold a virtual press conference for this event, presenting the new "Jeep Melfi Plant Virtual Tour" to the international media. Taking part in the event were more than 100 journalists connected from 14 different countries, so they could get to know the potential of the new digital tool.

Renegade: an unforgettable birthday

Launched exactly a year ago, the Jeep Renegade  entered the compact -SUV segment for the first time recognised as the best off-road performer in its category, it is already leading the brand to historic sales results in Europe. To date, over 135,000 Renegades have come off the production line and gone on to notch up a spectacular commercial success, soaring straight up the sales charts in many countries, such as Italy, France and Austria. Furthermore, the original Jeep SUV has already won many important international awards, such as "New Car of the Year 2015" awarded by Quattroruote readers; "Best SUV of 2015" awarded by the Coches.net site, leader on the Spanish motoring scene; and, in France, "4x4 of 2015" by "4x4 Magazine".

Sales performance and prestigious prizes which will undeniably contribute to reinforce the steady sales increase enjoyed by Jeep over the last five years. In particular, for the last three years,  the American brand has seen a world record in sales, hitting one million cars manufactured in 2014. This growth trend has already been confirmed in these past few months of 2015: from the United States, announcing its best August sales month ever, to Europe where Jeep was the fastest growing brand in the region in the first six months of 2015(source: ACEA).

Then, celebrating the Jeep Renegade's first birthday is also an ideal opportunity to celebrate the brand and its "most prizewinning range of SUVs of all time". No wonder that since 1941 - the year the Jeep legend was born - its name has come to be universally recognised as synonymous with offroad driving. This lust for adventure and pioneering is perfectly expressed by the Jeep Renegade, which perhaps explains why it has scored so well with a younger audience -the so-called "Millennial Generation" - which is particularly in tune with new technologies and new ways of communicating.

"Jeep Melfi Plant Virtual Tour"

Thanks to Google Maps Business View, you can now enjoy an exciting experience by entering the FCA Melfi Plant directly on Google Maps. Making the experience as immersive as possible, a total of 3,924 pictures were taken over the course of three days. "Sewn together" by a special algorithm which creates all-round images in 360° horizontally and 290° vertically, these images are used to offer 327 different panoramic viewpoints, each of which consists of 12 HD photos.

Users thus have the possibility of "moving" inside the industrial plant and exploring the details that interest them - with the same intuitive dynamic offered by Google Street View - as they travel through the factory's four productive units: stamping, body-in-white, painting and assembly. They also have the option of in-depth investigation of certain processes via seven video clips of 30" each, which zoom into details that show the most striking aspects of the factory's technological innovation and the resulting high quality of its products. A technical curiosity: to create the three and a half minutes of the seven videos, over 1,200 minutes of video were shot, for a total of roughly 20 terabytes of material.

Ultra-sophisticated in the technology applied but extremely simple and intuitive to use, the new "Jeep Melfi Plant Virtual Tour" is a "transparent" way for the American brand to communicate with its current and potential customers. In the near future, this instrument will be enriched by new functions which will create further contact between this legendary brand and its followers.

A global excellence in the heart of the Mediterranean

FCA Melfi Plant is one of the most highly advanced automotive factories in the whole of Europe, not least thanks to the investment of over one billion Euros to enable the production of the new models to be manufactured here: Jeep Renegade and Fiat 500X. In order to guarantee the best quality possible from day one, all the latest technologies and best practices of other FCA plants around the world were implemented in Melfi.

On 18 June 2009, the Melfi factory was awarded Silver Level certification from WCM (World Class Manufacturing),  the international methodology for optimizing the manufacturing cycle. . It was also the first plant in Italy to receive this award. Among other things, one item of information about the whole procedure stood out: for the past four years no accidents have happened. Along with safety, the second priority has always been the quest for maximum quality, both in terms of product and manufacturing process.

Currently the facility consists of four units - stamping, body-in-white, painting and assembly - and employs a total of almost 8,000 workers; it has 5 pressing machines and 2 shearing machines for the stamping step; 860 robots for the body-in-white step; 54 robots for painting operations; and 278 automatic screwing stations plus about 4,000 people exclusively dedicated to car assembly. For those who wish to discover the different phases of the manufacturing cycle, a mechanism perfected in every detail, viewers can start from the sheets of laminated metal used to shape the body, then go in depth into the paint process, and then the assembly of all the car's components. In total, over 5,000 different components go into the making of the different versions of the Jeep Renegade.

Spread out over a surface of about 1.9 million square metres, the plant was built between 1991 and 1993 at San Nicola, 18 kilometres from Melfi, in an area with no other industry. Over the last twenty years it has housed production lines for various Fiat and Lancia models, including the Fiat Punto (1994), Lancia Ypsilon (1995), New Ypsilon (2003), Grande Punto (2005) and Punto Evo (2009), reaching a total of almost six million vehicles produced up until March 2015. Currently it manufactures three basic lines of model: Fiat 500X, Fiat Grande Punto and Jeep Renegade.

Turin, 10 September 2015