FCA will cease operations of the Fiat brand in India due to negligible sales and the upcoming safety & emission norms.
Fiat has been known in every household of India and even though its cars may not have sold much in the past few years, even today a lot of enthusiasts swear by this brand. Some really amazing cars like the Grande Punto, Linea T-Jet, Abarth Punto, 595, etc. came out from the company’s portfolio but now Fiat’s parent company FCA has decided to call it quits for the brand in India.
FCA will focus only on Jeep and cease operations for Fiat India and this is expected to happen between the mid and end of this year. There are a lot of reasons for this too. Firstly, Fiat’s India portfolio is nothing to write home about. They have been selling the Linea and Punto since 10 years now and these cars have seriously started feeling outdated.
Even though these vehicles have got a few upgrades over the years and the Punto has also spawned crossover and Abarth versions, nothing could really bring the sales up because the competition has always been moving a step ahead of Fiat.
Fiat has also been supplying the 1.3-litre MJD diesel engine to Tata and Maruti to use in a number of their cars but this engine isn’t BS6 compliant and hence will need to be discontinued. Maruti and Tata will then start using their own engines.
Over the last 1 year, Fiat could sell just a notch above 100 cars in India. To revive the brand, a thorough portfolio revamp would be needed but that would require a very large investment to the tune of Rs. 4300 crore which the company finds a gamble.
Hence, Fiat has asked its dealers to sell all their stock, especially the non-ABS cars as soon as possible because once the new safety norms kick in, it won’t be possible to register non-ABS cars. From 1st April 2019, ABS will be mandatory on all new cars while from October 2019 every new car will be required to pass the BNVSAP crash tests.
With the departure of Fiat from India, expect resale value of their cars to drop significantly. We aren’t sure for how long will the company continue supplying spare parts for existing customers but what we do know is that a lot of people are going to miss Fiat and their fun-to-drive cars.
Fiat India Operations
– Fiat cars won’t be able to meet the upcoming safety & emission norms
– Dealers have been asked to sell their stock quickly
– Fiat doesn’t find it feasible to introduce new cars here
Source – AutocarIndia.com
