Fiat’s India affair may all be over, but for the Jeep
MUMBAI:Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV (FCA) is gradually phasing out its storied Fiat brand in India after a run of more than a century as the company sharpens focus on the Jeep brand of sports utility vehicles (SUVs) to grow its fortunes in the world’s fourth-largest passenger vehicle market, said dealers.
Jeep has turned to be a success for FCA ever since the company introduced the Compass SUV model last year. With SUV demand staying robust, the auto maker is reworking its strategies to tap Jeep’s expertise and make a deeper foothold in this growing market.
To be sure, FCA has not curtailed supply of spare parts for Fiat cars, but dealer sales targets and inventory are at a “bare minimum,” said a dealer in Nagpur.
Three dealers, including the one in Nagpur, said FCA is imploring them to allot more floor space at showrooms and boost marketing spend on the Jeep brand.
The Compass, which went on sale in July 2017, was critical to revive the company in India as demand for the Fiat brand of cars has been on the wane for years. Since its inception in 2015, the local unit had a “single-minded” focus on making the Jeep Compass a success because the company “couldn’t risk anything”, FCA India’s president and managing director, Kevin Flynn, said in a September 27 interview.
FCA plans to launch two more locally produced Jeep models in the next three years—a sub-four metre SUV placed below the Compass and a three-row SUV.
“Because of the historic links, we’ve to make some decisions on what best we do with Fiat,” Flynn said. He did not say whether the company would phase out the Fiat brand.
To promote the Jeep, FCA India is undertaking strategic marketing initiatives to showcase its capabilities, in addition to developing and migrating about 35 of its biggest Fiat dealers into FCA dealers, to sell cars under the Fiat, Jeep and Abarth brands. Several other Fiat dealerships, which were unviable for years, were quietly shuttered.
FCA India has also set up close to 70 dealerships exclusively for the Jeep brand, which can also sell imported models such as the Wrangler and the Grand Cherokee. FCA dealers are allowed to sell only highly localized models such as the Compass.