The move is considered to be a significant development ahead of the auto major merging its vehicle development with Fiat S.p.A. Chrysler will begin by using the Siemens NX software for joint powertrain programs on the Fiat 500 minicar, Fiat 500EV, Fiat’s 1.4-liter Fully Integrated Robotized Engine and Chrysler’s next-generation compact vehicles.

Scott Kunselman, senior vice president of engineering at Chrysler Group has said, “Integration of this tool will help to enhance our ability to collectively engineer new products with improved quality and faster time to market.”

He has also stated that Chrysler LLC began to use Teamcenter software (Siemens PLM Software’s digital lifecycle management solution) as its corporate-wide product data management system in 2008 itself. Currently they are using pasts of the PLM software, Teamcenter software, Siemens PLM Software’s digital lifecycle management solution.

It is expected that the software will be integrated into the process of designing Chrysler vehicles and this could have wide implications to the tune of millions of dollars through the sully chain.

Suppliers will be required to get in touch with the product development systems. With the change, engineers working at the suppliers will be impacted too as Chrysler and its suppliers will need to share engineering designs.