Fiat India has already started work on getting back to its feet in the Indian car market. The Italian automaker kept a technology meet at the Fiat Caffe in New Delhi earlier this week and today the same is being conducted at Fiat Caffe in Pune. We are at the event where top officials from Fiat India are present including Enrico Atanasio (Head Commercial), Jayant Deb (Head, Engineering and Design) and Gurpratap Boparai (Head, Fiat Powertrains). Discussion about Fiat’s innovations are being talked about. This event is a brand endorsement and image building event overall.
Fiat has the biggest R&D center in India in the whole world, which employs 1300 engineers. This shows how important India is for Fiat. The discussion revolved around the Multijet diesel engine, MutiAir petrol engine and the 1.0-litre TwinAir petrol engine technology. Fiat will however be focusing on diesel technology and MultiAir petrol engine will not be brought to India anytime soon. When asked, officials said that other than the 1.3-litre Multijet diesel, the 1.6-litre Multijet, 1.9-litre Multijet 2 and 3-litre V6 engines are in the portfolio and might come to India.
Fiat will be opening around 80 independent dealerships in the country by March 2013. Currently only 3 have been opened and after Hyderabad, 7 key cities will get independent showrooms. Fiat’s main task at hand is to setup a good retail network, post which the Italian automaker plans to do a product onslaught with launches both from Fiat and Chrysler stable. The Jeep Grande Cherokee is almost certain to be on sale here by the end of 2013.