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In April last year, Fiat indicated, at its investors meet in Turin, that it was targeting sales of 130,000 cars in India by 2014. With present volumes at barely a fourth of this figure, this modest goal may not be quite easy to achieve even while a new compact car is scheduled to debut in 2012.
While the India script has not quite gone according to plan, the company is betting big on Brazil where it will invest nearly $6 billion over the next three years. At its recent half-yearly results presentation, Fiat said this money would be used for a painting system upgrade at its Betim plant and also to set up another facility in Pernambuco, north-east of Brazil.
Clearly, India is not top priority for Fiat, at least for the next three years. This is understandable given that nothing has quite gone right here for the last decade. The partnership with Tata Motors promised plenty but yielded precious little from the viewpoint of big numbers.
Market share in Brazil
In contrast, Brazil has been a happy hunting ground for Fiat where it has a 24 per cent share and intends maintaining it at this level till 2014. In terms of volume, this translates into nearly 1.03 million vehicles of the 4.3 million units estimated to be in the market over the next three years.
China and Russia, likewise, rank higher than India in Fiat's scheme of things where the combined volumes are projected at nearly 600,000 units by 2014. These two markets will also have a fair share of Chrysler products, unlike India which will only get a Fiat compact.
Diesel engine
Of late, Fiat has been making news in India more for its 1.3 Multijet diesel engine being produced at its Ranjangaon facility near Pune. Reports have been doing the rounds for sometime now that this plant will meet Maruti-Suzuki's needs for the future. Likewise, Fiat could even look at other potential customers, both here and overseas, for the 1.3 Multijet.
Things could get different post-2014 as the market grows but what the company needs is a big break in numbers. The new B segment car could do the trick but sources say that, lot of work first needs to be done at the retail end.
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