Fiat eyes Utility Vehicle segment in India

With an eye on the fast growing Indian utility vehicles segment, Italian car major Fiat today said it could bring brands from Fiat-Chrysler portfolio, including Jeep and 500X, to the country.

The company is currently in the process of registering its own entity in India to take care of commercial operations, such as sales and after sales business, after ending its distribution association with Tata Motors earlier this year.

"Lots of brands with sports utility vehicle (SUV) or SUV-like products are coming to India. The segment is growing. The next probable brand from Fiat-Chrysler for the Indian market is Jeep," Fiat India Automobiles Ltd (FIAL) Senior Vice President (Commercial) Enrico Atanasio told reporters here.

Atanasio, who will be the Managing Director of the new Fiat group sales company in India, declined to share any further details such as the model and timing of launch.

"We are also considering 500X. This is also an opportunity for the Indian market. We are considering carefully the possibilities of all the brands," Atanasio said.

He, however, added that these new products would be considered for launch only after Fiat completes setting up about 70-80 exclusive showrooms by March next year.

Fiat's plans for the utility vehicle segment comes on a day when Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers revised the growth projection of the segment upward to 29-31 per cent in this fiscal from 10-12 per cent announced in April.

Talking about the new commercial entity, Atanasio said: "Fiat has decided to create a fully-owned company to take care of sales of cars and parts. Currently it is being incorporated and it is just a matter of days to finalise the name. I will be the MD of that firm."

In May, Fiat and Tata Motors had ended their distribution alliance formed in 2007 for sales and service of Italian firm's vehicles in India. The 50:50 joint venture at present has joint distribution network and back-end support, besides co-manufacturing of products at the Ranjangaon unit near Pune.

"The JV company will exist and it will manufacture all cars and engines. It will be a 100 per cent manufacturing set up. We will be one of the key clients of it," Atanasio said.

He said the new company will have about 70-80 exclusive Fiat showrooms across the country by mid-2013 as against just three at present. These will be opened by the existing Tata-Fiat joint dealerships or new ones.

"In the next 9-12 months, when we will have dedicated dealerships and service network, there will be no Fiat-Tata showrooms," he said.

Currently, Fiat has 166 joint showrooms with Tata Motors, besides 179 workshops across 126 locations.