Wednesday, May 02, 2012
By Pawan Rana
Its official now: Fiat cars to be sold under a separate Fiat group owned company
Fiat and Tata mutually have decided to give the management reign of Fiat’s commercial and distribution activities to a segregate company owned by Fiat. This is being done in wake of creating a good image of the Fiat brand in India. Until now Tata Motors has been controlling the distribution accountability of the Fiat cars in India via joint Tata Fiat dealerships.
A Fiat owned company will specifically be formed to manage the distribution and service responsibility of Fiat cars in India. As discussed earlier this is the part of the project aimed towards the growth of the Fiat brand in India.
| See More Fiat Linea Photos | Get Fiat Linea Price |
Formed in 2006, the Fiat-Tata alliance encloses production activities situated in Ranjangaon, Maharashtra, India. The production facility makes use of the up-to-date technology to manufacture Fiat and Tata cars along with powertrains and transmissions to be used in both Indian auto market and export market. Fiat also inked a deal with Maruti Suzuki to source its small diesel engines to the latter. So far under the Fiat-Tata JV, around 190,000 cars and 337,000 engines have been manufactured. The manufacturing activities are not included in the new distribution agreement and will continue to supply cars and engines to Fiat and Tata.
| See More Fiat Grande Punto Photos | Get Fiat Grande Punto Price |
The elaboration of the Fiat dealer network for the domestic market will commence liberally and the existing 178 Fiat-franchised Tata dealers spread in 129 cities will be emboldened to make the base of the forthcoming network. Cars like Fiat Punto and Fiat Linea are sold at these showrooms.
Fiat launched the reworked versions of its cars, Fiat Linea sedan and Fiat Grande Punto hatchback in India in the beginning of January. Despite the launching the new and improved versions of both the cars, the company could not clock impressive sales, therefore it became necessary to promote the brand and hence company has come forth with this plan.
