Fiat India has had a tough time over the past a few years, the Indian arm of the Italian carmaker has had several false starts. However, their new Managing Director, Nagesh Basavanhalli wants to make one thing clear to Indian carbuyers, “Fiat is here for the long-haul.”
Part of Fiat India’s woes over the past a few years was due to an unsuccessful marketing partnership with Tata Motors. “It helped us tide over the troubles we faced when we broke off with Premier Automobiles limited and had no dealer network to speak of”, Basavanhalli told The Pioneer. However, as time passed, the deal with Tata Motors was seen negatively by consumers and dealers alike.
“We took the decision to start our own network a couple of years ago and now we have over 104 dealers across India and we plan to expand that to 150 dealers by the end of 2014”, Basavanhalli elucidated. Although, Fiat India and Tata Motors continue to be 50-50 joint-venture partners at their car and engine plant at Ranjangaon near Pune with an annual capacity of 200,000 cars and 300,000 engines and transmissions, which he believes ought to be enough capacity for now.
Another negative Fiat faced was a perception that their after-sales service was woeful and Fiat cars had expensive parts. To address the latter problem Fiat has asked all their dealers to store adequate stock of all key ‘fast-moving’ spares such as front and rear bumpers, headlights, taillights and engine consumables.
In addition, the company has built what they claim to be Asia’s largest parts warehouse near Pune and promises that any part required for repairs will reach ‘any corner of India’ within three working days. Fiat is also countering poor service by establishing something called the ‘Amigo Program’ one of the tenets of which involves a Fiat salesman coming over to customers within ten days of buying a Fiat car to explain the car and its features.
Fiat India showcased four new cars at the Auto Expo, 2014. Refreshed models of the linea and Punto, the Avventura Concept and the Fiat 500 Abarth. The Avventura (Italian for Adventure), which Basavanhalli promises will be launched in India before the year is over is a crossover which he says fits the ‘young, growing and aspiring’ Indian customer.
With rough road tyres, pitch and roll indicators, it will be aimed squarely at the off-road market. However, Fiat India ruled out any possibility of bringing the Jeep brand to India in the immediate future. “Current economic conditions coupled with high exchange rates mean that we have decided against launching the Jeep brand in India right now and have instead brought our sporty ‘Abarth’ brand”, Basavanhalli said.
Recently, at the global level Fiat effectively merged with its American arm, Chrysler to form Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA). “This will give us the opportunity to bring any brand from our umbrella to India whenever we want”, Basavanhalli pointed out. Fiat, he said, considers India one of the top 5 markets for the company in the world and that his aim is to prove the management in Turin (Fiat headquarters) right.