It’s like Fiat India has just added a supercharger to its India strategy— after a long lull, that is.
The fabled Italian carmaker on Thursday said it will introduce 9 products by 2016, which will include all manners of SUV marquees.
Despite being an early entrant, the company couldn’t generate big volumes. In 2011, it had a market share of 0.7%. Fiat wants to quintuple this to 5% in the next four years.
In all, the company will launch 4 products from the Jeep familly, 4 from Fiat and one from Abarth, which is a sports car brand owned by Fiat.
The company is betting high on the sports utility vehicle (SUV) segment as it plans to introduce the full range of Jeep vehicles by 2016.
First off the gates will be the Wrangler and Grand Cherokee in 2013, which will be fully imported.
A completely new SUV in the B segment is in pipeline for 2015 and India will be one of the first key markets. 2016 will see another SUV from Jeep in the C segment.
“We will cover all the SUV segments and have full range of Jeep branded SUVs,” said Mike Manley- president and CEO – Jeep Brand, Chrysler Group LLC, chief operating officer Fiat-Chrysler Asia Pacific.
The company will set up 32 exclusive dealerships for Jeep in 25 locations in the next few years.
Fiat, too, is in the process of launching a compact sub-4-metre SUV, which will hit the market in 2014.
“The new SUV will be in the range of Ford’s Ecosport. It will be a completely new product focused on the emerging markets like India,” said Enrico Atanasio, managing director, Fiat Group of Automobiles India. Fiat will also launch new Punto and Linea as part of its product line up till 2016.
Fiat also announced the introduction of Abarth brand in India. The details of the plan will be shared in 2013.
With just two products in the existing line-up, the company has been missing action in different segments. “The target of 5% market share strikes a good balance given the products we will bring in. India is one of the key markets and we will make significant investments,” said Manley.
After its distribution split with Tata Motors, Fiat is looking at taking the full control on distribution by March 2013.
