Fiat India is stepping on the accelerator pedal to improve its brand images in the Indian market which now is the sixth largest in the world.
Fiat is all set to bring in the Jeep, Chrysler and Alfa Romeo brand to India to tap on the fast growing luxury car market. (car here means: Cars, Jeeps, SUV’s and supercars).
Fiat currently has the Fiat, Maserati and Ferrari brands on the Indian roads. With the new brands coming to India the total will go to Six out of Eight brands which the parent company has under its kitty.
(For those who did not Know: Fiat owns: Fiat, Lancia, Ferrari, Maserati, Alfa Romeo, Chrysler, Dodge & Jeep brands. Besides this it also owns the Iveco (commercial vehicle maker), Magneti Marelli (auto components), Abarth (tuning division) a few to be named.)
The component arm Magneti Marelli has already set up shop in the Indian market.
A team of senior officials from Chrysler are conducting product clinics for the Jeep Grand Cherokee, an SUV in a price segment similar to that of Toyota’s Fortuner, Ssangyong’s Rexton and Chevrolet’s Captiva.
If the plans go as per scheduled, Chrysler will use the Ranjangaon plant, near Pune to bring the in completely-knocked-down (CKD) units of the models to be launched in the Indian market. The Alfa Romeo and Maserati brands will be bought in via the CBU route (the new 30% import duty could help bring down the prices.)
If all goes well Fiat as a group could certainly gain a good footfall in the Indian market where it is currently struggling to sell a few thousand units.
