Sergio Marchionne — Fiat-Chrysler CEO recently made clear that by 2014, Chrysler Group will stop making Jeep Compass to replace the Chrysler Town & Country minivan with a crossover as part of an extended effort to give each Chrysler Group brand separate identity. Marchionne expects this move will indeed help to remove product overlaps common in the Daimler-Chrysler era. More than 90 percent of Chrysler’s dealerships sell all four volume brands: Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep and Ram. Hence brand identity is crucial for the automaker.

The Jeep Compass look alike the Jeep Patriot while the Town and Country shares many feature with the Dodge Grand Caravan minivan. A small version Chrysler-brand crossover will be developed instead of the Town and Country and may retain the name as well. Chrysler, as part of this new move will field only one minivan, the Grand Caravan. Since 2009, Marchionne has introduced three brands to North America — Ram, Fiat and SRT.

“The Compass and Patriot will continue to be built alongside the new Dodge Dart in Belvidere through August 2014,” Marchionne said. He told plant employees that there are lots of other candidates ready to take place of the Compass. At present, Chrysler works on an SRT version of the Dart. “The only thing we’re fighting over now is to determine how big an engine we stick in it,” he added.

via Autonews