Those sales targets represent an 18 percent improvement over Chrysler's 2009 U.S. sales and a 27 percent jump from last year's global total, both tall orders given that most industry leaders say they expect U.S. sales to rise about 10 percent this year to 11.5 million.
The difficulty is heightened by the timing of Chrysler's new product launches, which won't have much impact until the second half of the year.
Marchionne also opened the door slightly to the possible reinstatement of a few of the 789 dealers it terminated last June as part of its bankruptcy exit plan.
"I think we're willing to engage in a dialogue with dealers that were not renewed with Chrysler," Marchionne said.
Congress has passed legislation that would give dealers who lost their General Motors or Chrysler franchises the chance to appeal before an arbitrator. If the arbitrator ruled a dealer lost a franchise despite meeting the automaker's criteria for selecting surviving dealers, that dealer could be offered a new location for selling Chrysler, Jeep, Dodge and Ram vehicles. If the arbitrator upheld Chrysler's decision not to renew the franchise, dealers would have no other appeal.
Marchionne expressed confidence in Chrysler's selection criteria but added that there may be some locations where he would consider adding dealers "if they have a viable business case."
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