While Fiat India generated good sales under its JV with Tata Motors, the company witnessed a slowdown after splitting up with its former partner.
Fiat and Tata Motors had a JV in regards to marketing and sales. Vehicles from both the manufacturers’ stables would be displayed and sold alongside each other while the marketing joint venture made sure that Fiat vehicles too got a satisfactory amount of sales each year. After splitting up with Tata Motors, Fiat has been operating completely on its own with regards to sales, service and marketing. The Italian automaker has been facing a really tough time in generating a good number of car sales in India despite their vehicles being very good.
Fiat launched three vehicles in India in 2014. The Linea got a massive update in terms of both exteriors and interiors while the Punto Evo too saw some extensive changes. The Punto Evo then spawned a crossover called Avventura which too turned out to be a very capable vehicle. Why then do Fiat cars don’t sell? First of all, the sales and service network isn’t as large as rivals but the company is slowly working up its way there. There have also been various reports on the web stating that Fiat cars have quality as well as some reliability issues in the long term.
The 1.3-litre Multijet engine that Fiat produces is the national engine of India. The same powerplant is being used on multiple vehicles from Maruti Suzuki, Tata Motors and Fiat obviously. It won’t be hard to deny that the automaker survives solely on engine sales rather than proper car sales. Launch of the Jeep and Abarth brands has been getting delayed since a long time now but we can finally expect these vehicles to hit our market in 2015.
Fiat India Car Sales (with Tata Motors JV) –
FY10 – 24,800 units
FY11 – 21,112 units
FY12 – 16,073 units
Fiat India Car Sales (without Tata Motors JV) –
FY13 – 6413 units
FY14 – 11,980 units
FY15 – 6700 units (till November)
Source – Economic Times