Fiat has announced it will launch Jeep products focused for India by late 2013, as part of their massive expansion plans. Details of exact timing for the launches has been given by Fiat. Like many big international players in India, they will launch their flagship products first for brand building, followed by many lower priced products to gain market share.
Fiat will first launch Jeep’s highly anticipated Grand Cherokee and Wrangler by the last quarter of 2013. These cars will be imported as completely built units. They will be available at the new exclusive Fiat showrooms that the Italian car maker is in process of setting up. The sales and services too will be provided by these dealers.
Slowly, exclusive Jeep showrooms too will be opened before launch of the next volume products. First of these will be a B-segment SUV to be launched by mid-2014. Later by mid-2015, a bigger C-segment SUV will be launched. Both these cars will use Fiat technology and share the platforms and powertrains from Fiat but at the same time keep the traditional Jeep styling intact. They will retain all the typical Jeep rugged characteristics. These Jeeps will be manufactured at the Fiat factory at Ranjangaon and all components and raw materials will be highly localized. Thus keeping the costs low, making these SUV’s very value for money.
Fiat has said that India is a key market for them and is the fifth biggest in the world and their largest right hand drive market. So Jeep will give a great head start to achieve their target of 5 percent market share in India by 2016. Along with this, they will also start exporting Fiat and Jeep products manufactured in India, to other right hand drive markets including South Africa and other Asian countries.
Source – NDTV Profit