AUBURN HILLS, Michigan (AFP) - After a massive government bailout, a quick spin through bankruptcy and a hasty alliance with Italy's Fiat, Chrysler's latest leader will on Wednesday unveil his plan to revive the storied US automaker.

Sergio Marchionne -- who also heads Fiat -- will present the five year plan to hundreds of journalists and analysts in a six hour presentation at the company's Auburn Hills, Michigan headquarters.

He is expected to announce plans to phase out some of Chrysler's less popular models and refresh its best-sellers; bring the Alfa Romeo brand back to the United States along with Fiat's 500 mini car; and describe ways in which the two companies will work to share technologies and reach globally competitive economies of scale.

The maverick executive said earlier this month that he can make Chrysler profitable within two years and plans to orchestrate a public stock offering "sometime after 2010."

Many here are hoping that Marchionne -- Chrysler's fourth chief executive officer in less than three years -- will be the one to finally transform the third largest US carmaker into a truly viable company.

The 57-year-old lawyer and accountant has a record of success after walking into Fiat in 2004 with no previous auto industry experience and driving the storied Italian carmaker into profitability.

The Detroit Free Press has called him a "man with a plan" and a "skilled survivor" who is "conducting a global industrial orchestra on adrenaline, four hours of sleep a night and only God knows how many cigarettes."

"After all, this is the guy who, in less than a month, convinced President Barack Obama and his automotive task force to reconsider pulling the plug on Chrysler," the paper wrote in a front page story Monday.

"Without paying a dime, he walked away with 20 percent of Chrysler and about 10 billion dollars in US taxpayer support."Related article: Magna accept GM Opel purchase halt

Marchionne has developed a reputation as being a great motivator who pushes his staff beyond normal limits, said Jeremy Anwyl, chief executive officer of automotive website Edmunds.com

"The chances were pretty slim -- and the odds still aren't great -- (that Chrysler will survive) but without him and his management style there wouldn't be a chance," Anwyl said in a telephone interview.

"They need to make a leap forward and you're only going to do that by getting people to perform way above levels they thought they could perform at. And he does that."

Mere charisma will not be enough.

Chrysler's biggest challenge will be surviving the next two to three years until the Fiat products arrive, said David Cole, chairman of the Center for Automotive Research.

"The next couple years will be tricky," Cole told AFP.

Chrysler's current product offerings are weak and there isn't much in the pipeline after the internal and external turbulence of recent years.

Chrysler underwent a painful divorce from Daimler in 2007 and its new owners -- private equity group Cerberus -- took the helm as auto sales were beginning to tumble.

The company shuttered plants and shed tens of thousands of workers but the painful restructuring was insufficient to keep the company afloat during one of the worst economic downturns in decades.

After a swift government-backed bankruptcy filing, Chrysler emerged as a new company under Marchionne's direction in June.

Its US sales -- which were down 30 percent in October even as its rivals posted gains -- remain down 39 percent for the year to date. And with US auto sales expected to remain at historically low levels for at least another year, competition will be fierce.

But the Fiat-Chrysler alliance could prove to be the savior of both companies should it survive the next few years, Cole said.

"Neither Chrysler or Fiat were survivable: they didn't have global presence and they didn't have global scale," Cole said.

"They have to take advantage of coming together and that's going to take a while to do."