July 26, 2012 - 13:45 AMT
Fiat accuses Volkswagen of being ‘too aggressive in pricing strategy’

Italian car maker Fiat's chief executive Sergio Marchionne accused German rival Volkswagen of being too aggressive in its pricing strategy, when conditions are already tough in the European auto industry, according to Reuters.

"It's a bloodbath of pricing and it's a bloodbath on margins," he said.

Marchionne, who is also head of U.S. automaker Chrysler, called for the European Commission to step in and help the sector face its huge overcapacity problems.

"What they should do is coordinate a rationalization of the industry across the producing companies," he said. "The ones that really have not acted on this are the French and the Germans, who have not taken out any capacity at all."

Results from European mass-market car makers this week are set to mirror the region's debt crisis as Germany's Volkswagen weathers the deepening slump while peers PSA Peugeot Citroen, Renault and Fiat struggle with plunging Mediterranean sales.