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| Edited By: Neha Rishi |Source: DNA |Updated: Mar 17, 2018, 03:00 AM IST
Fiat’s hatchback Palio will soon meet the same fate as Uno. It is almost on the verge of an exit from the Fiat India’s portfolio. The car sells less than 50 units per month, making an insignificant contribution to Fiat’s volumes. While Uno got replaced with Palio, it’s now the turn of Palio’s replacement with Grande Punto.
Rajeev Kapoor, chief executive officer, Fiat India, said, “There will be no upgrades for Palio and the current product will continue to sell.” The company spokesperson said that the car will not be upgraded to meet the Bharat Stage IV norms either. Another such product which will not see upgradation to BS IV is Maruti 800.
This will eventually lead to the phasing out of Palio. The spokesperson said the company intends to get the Palio buyers to switch to Grande Punto—its new bet.
Palio Stile, which is available in 1.1 and 1.6 litre versions and priced at Rs 3.5-4 lakh, started witnessing a decline in sales volumes 2004 onwards when Hyundai, Daewoo, Ford, Tata Motors, GM and Maruti Suzuki started flooding the Indian market.
The car was launched in September, 2001.
Grande Punto, which was launched in June last year, averages sales of 1,500 units per month. In order to give a boost to its hatch, Fiat will launch two versions of Grande Punto 1.2 litre petrol next month, followed by a sports version by the end of this year.
Despite competition from Volkswagen’s Polo, Fiat is confident that with more versions of Grande Punto it will be able to see 40% growth from the current level, Kapoor said. “We will double our current market share to 4% by the next year on the back of upgrades of Grande Punto and Linea,” said the Fiat spokesperson.
Linea 1.4 litre petrol version will be launched in the second half of next fiscal followed by the automatic version by the end of the year or early next year.
Fiat, which will close the year with 25,000 engines exports, is likely to see a massive dip in exports as the incentive scheme in European markets ended in December last year and there is no clarity on its extension.
