Fiat India Automobiles Limited, a joint-venture between Fiat Group and Tata Motors, plans to launch its small car by the end of 2011. “We are working on a small car which will be launched either by end of next year or early 2012,” said Fiat India Automobiles president and chief executive officer Rajeev Kapoor in Chandigarh.
The small car is likely to be priced in the Rs 3-3.5 lakh bracket and would draw prominent lessons learnt from making and marketing some of the best selling cars from the Fiat stable in India - the Palio and Grande Punto. “We are essentially a small car player which we tried to change with Linea but our strength is still in small cars. That will work in our favour when we introduce the small car which will be a benchmark car for Fiat,” adds Mr Kapoor.
Features such as safety, storage, emission control, entertainment and high performance may also be borrowed from the 500, which is sold as a completely built unit in India. With a price-tag of nearly Rs 15 lakh the twodoor Fiat 500 has sold 64 units since its launch in 2008.
But the small car will just be the beginning for Fiat in India, says Mr Kapoor, as the global management is betting big on the robust Indian economy. “The Linea will go through a lot of changes as we plan to re-create a new Linea on the same platform,” he adds.
A new Linea with a high-power 1.4 turbo charged gasoline engine will be rolled out in June this year while the Grande Punto will be introduced in a 90 hp version. Fiat India is also working on a larger plan to introduce Punto with a gasoline-CNG engine that automatically shifts between using liquid fuel and compressed natural gas depending on requirement.
The small car is likely to be priced in the Rs 3-3.5 lakh bracket and would draw prominent lessons learnt from making and marketing some of the best selling cars from the Fiat stable in India - the Palio and Grande Punto. “We are essentially a small car player which we tried to change with Linea but our strength is still in small cars. That will work in our favour when we introduce the small car which will be a benchmark car for Fiat,” adds Mr Kapoor.
Features such as safety, storage, emission control, entertainment and high performance may also be borrowed from the 500, which is sold as a completely built unit in India. With a price-tag of nearly Rs 15 lakh the twodoor Fiat 500 has sold 64 units since its launch in 2008.
But the small car will just be the beginning for Fiat in India, says Mr Kapoor, as the global management is betting big on the robust Indian economy. “The Linea will go through a lot of changes as we plan to re-create a new Linea on the same platform,” he adds.
A new Linea with a high-power 1.4 turbo charged gasoline engine will be rolled out in June this year while the Grande Punto will be introduced in a 90 hp version. Fiat India is also working on a larger plan to introduce Punto with a gasoline-CNG engine that automatically shifts between using liquid fuel and compressed natural gas depending on requirement.
ET
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