Chrysler 2015 Annual Report Download - page 169

2015 | ANNUAL REPORT 169
4. Research and development costs
Research and development costs were as follows:
For the Years Ended December 31,
2015 2014 2013
(€ million)
Research and development costs expensed during the year 1,449 1,320 1,257
Amortization of capitalized development costs 1,194 932 768
Impairment and write-off of costs previously capitalized 221 82 250
Total Research and development costs 2,864 2,334 2,275
The impairment and write-off of costs previously capitalized during the year ended December 31, 2015 mainly related
to the Group’s plan to realign a portion of its manufacturing capacity in NAFTA to better meet demand for Ram pickup
trucks and Jeep vehicles within the Group’s existing plant infrastructure, which resulted in an impairment charge of
€176 million for capitalized development costs that had no future economic benefit.
As a result of new product strategies and the streamlining of architectures and related production platforms
associated with the Group, the operations to which specific capitalized development costs belonged were redesigned
during the year ended December 31, 2014. As no future economic benefits were expected from these specific
capitalized development costs, €47 million within the EMEA segment and €28 million within the NAFTA segment of
development costs were written off and recorded within Research and development costs in the Consolidated Income
Statement for the year ended December 31, 2014.
To reflect changes in its product strategy, the Group wrote-off specific capitalized development costs totaling €250
million during the year ended December 31, 2013. This amount mainly included €151 million for the EMEA segment,
€32 million for the LATAM segment and €65 million for Maserati in connection with development costs on new
vehicles, which had been shifted to new platforms considered technologically more appropriate.
Refer to Note 11 for information on capitalized development costs.