Fiat Chrysler bets on new launches to revive fortunes

The car-maker said it was working on various categories simultaneously, which included the B, C-high and C-low categories and the higher segment of the sports utility vehicles

Fiat Chrysler, a joint venture between Fiat Group Automobiles SpA of Italy and Chrysler Group LLC, is hoping to revive its fortunes in India on the back of nine new models that it is planning to launch between now and the next three years, according to a top official of the company.

“It is difficult to envisage at this stage on when we will achieve a break even. It (break-even) has not happened as was predicted earlier. We, however, are working towards it, and hope that our product strategies will keep us in a good position,” Marius D’Lima, head (corporate communications), told mediapersons.

Inaugurating the company’s second dealership in Hyderabad on Monday, Fiat Chrysler president and managing director (India operations), Nagesh Basavanhalli, said the company was working on various categories simultaneously, which included the B, C-high and C-low categories and the higher segment of the sports utility vehicles (SUVs).

“At present, localisation of our production stands upwards of 85 per cent. The intent of Fiat is to reach the highest level of localisation,” he said,adding the company’s third largest technical centre in Chennai that employs more than 1,000 engineers would play a major role in this.

According to D’Lima, the company’s capacity utilisation, which was between 60 per cent and 70 per cent, has proportionately come down to 40 per cent because of the rupee depreciation and the markets taking a dip.

Fiat’s plant at Ranjangaon in Maharashtra has a capacity to churn out 200,000 cars and 300,000 engines a year. The joint venture plant with Tata Motors Limited manufactures Linea and Grande Punto, and Manza, Indica Vista and Indica V2 for Tata Motors, besides producing Fiat’s 1.3-litre, multi-jet diesel engines and 1.2 and 1.4-litre fire gasoline engines.

“Like the competition, we will also have some new models coming out within Linea and Punto for the ensuing festive season. We are doing some works for Tata Motors, and if it also comes out with some schemes to offer to its customers, obviously the plant numbers will go up,” he said, while declining to comment further.