AUBURN HILLS, Mich. -

Chrysler announced Monday the new head of the Fiat brand for North America to replace Laura Soave, who has left Chrysler and is pursuing other interests.

Appointed to the position — effective immediately — is Timothy Kuniskis, whose most recent post was as director of product marketing for both the Chrysler and Fiat brands.

As Fiat’s North American boss, Kuniskis’ duties include heading up the brand’s sales, marketing, dealer network and service.  Kuniskis has been with Chrysler since 1992, serving in various business center operations and marketing organization roles over the last two decades.

“Tim brings broad expertise and leadership in dealer operations and marketing where he has been already working with the team to shape the direction of the Fiat brand,” said Chrysler chairman and chief executive officer Sergio Marchionne.

“As North American head of Fiat, much of his immediate focus will be working with the dealer body where his fresh perspective from the operational side, as well as that on the commercial side, will begin the Fiat Brand’s next chapter,” he added.

Soave was picked by Marchionne in March 2010 to lead Fiat’s re-launch into North America. She came over from Volkswagen of America, where she was general manager of experiential marketing.

According to one particular report, Suave was at the launch of the new Fiat 500 Abarth during the Los Angeles Auto Show. However, she did not join the press conference, the report said.

Marchionne: Elimination of Some Automakers Likely

In other news from the company, Marchionne was in London on Monday addressing the Confederation of British Industry’s Annual Conference, tackling the topic of “accelerating growth through export success.”

Woven into his speech was insight into how automakers — particularly Chrysler and Fiat — fit into this dynamic of globalization.

Interestingly enough, the Chrysler/Fiat boss — emphasizing his stance that an automaker needs 6 million global sales each year and at least 1 million sales per platform to generate enough return — projects that the global market will someday be whittled down to just five or six “major players.”

“Given these fundamental operating requirements, we are bound to see the elimination of marginal players going forward,” Marchionne suggested. “In fact, I believe we will end up with just five to six major players whose success will be based on sharing architectures and powertrains at the global level.

“Our operating and strategic decisions have all been aimed at ensuring Fiat and Chrysler are in that group of global players,” he added.

Of course, Marchionne acknowledged that both Fiat and Chrysler were on the brink of being among the global players left behind, suggesting that neither one of the two could have survived without the other.

However, with an aligned Fiat-Chrysler, the automaker is expecting to post 4.2 million global sales in 2011, putting it No. 5 on the list of the world’s largest car companies, he noted. What’s more, the automaker has its sights set on hitting the 5.9 million sales mark within the next three years.

“By joining forces, we can better leverage our combined production capacity through the optimization of new product allocation. The partnership also offers us the extraordinary opportunity to address the situation at our Italian plants, where production levels have for years been too low to be competitive,” Marchionne explained.

Moreover, Fiat has the chance to bolster its industrial system so that it can compete internationally and have opportunities to export vehicles to “more demanding markets” like the U.S.

“If Fiat were to have continued investing alone in Italy, the risks would have been enormous: large expenditures that are not shared, insufficient volumes and high unit costs,” he commented further.

“However, as a result of its tie-up with Chrysler, Fiat has the opportunity to be global once more, gaining access to markets outside Europe and sharing investment in the development of architectures that have a parallel application in North America,” Marchionne added.

For more on Marchionne’s speech, visit http://www.cbi.org.uk/media/1172227/sergione_marchionne_cbi_speech.pdf.