Michigan — While vehicle makers around the world covet Jeep for its strong growth and fat profits, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles sees potential for much more, banking on the rugged brand to vie with global giants such as Toyota, Volkswagen and Ford. The Italian-American vehicle maker is forecasting Jeep’s annual sales to jump about 30% next year to 2-million vehicles and predicts the brand could eventually deliver 7-million units a year as appetite for SUVs surges worldwide, CEO Sergio Marchionne has told analysts. That would continue impressive growth for a US-focused off-road brand that had little more than 300,000 deliveries in 2009, when Fiat took control of Jeep as part of its acquisition of Chrysler. Even if Marchionne has plenty of reasons to see more growth ahead for the sport utility vehicles, that level of expansion would be unprecedented. Jeep would need at least one model to sell more than 1-million a year. Only the Toyota Corolla, an affordable bread-and-butter compact that...
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