Fiat Chrysler India Head and Managing Director Nagesh Basavanhalli quits the company at a time when Fiat is gearing up for new launches.
Fiat India has been facing tough times since a long period now. The Italian automaker has constantly failed to create a good market share for itself in the Indian auto market. The company does have some nice products in its portfolio but with poor impressions about the company’s service, vehicles like the Punto, Linea and Avventura fail to sell in good numbers. Fiat separated from Tata Motors a couple of years ago and ever since then, the company is trying to come up with a strong strategy to establish itself properly in the market.
Nagesh Basavanhalli was the head of Fiat and Chrysler’s Asia Pacific (APAC) Technical Centre in Chennai and later joined the company as Head and Managing Director in April 2013 (replacing Rajeev Kapoor). He played an instrumental role in introducing various strategies that could have helped Fiat turn around its fortunes. He has now quit the company at a point of time when the Italian car manufacturer is looking to launch various important products from the Jeep and Abarth range in India.
This also comes as surprising news since his exit happened all of a sudden. It will now be interesting to see which company he joins with all his leadership capabilities. It will also be interesting to see how the company’s new head takes up responsibilities and churns out plans for the future. Fiat surely needs some nice motivation to be up and running. Pablo Rosso, Head of Fiat Chrysler, South Korea will be the interim head of Fiat India starting from January 2015. Whether Fiat’s launch plans get affected is yet to be seen.
