Fiat's chief executive will today outline plans to transform the global vehicle landscape by spinning off Fiat's core cars division, joining it with Chrysler and General Motors Europe, and creating a new publicly traded European car giant.

Sergio Marchionne wants OpelVauxhallSaabto create a company with about €80bn (£71bn) of revenues and sales of 6m-7m vehicles a year - second to Toyota, more than Renault/Nissan or Ford Motor, or GM itself, and roughly as many as Volkswagen.