For Fiat, potential in India is limitiless

Nagesh Basavanhalli believes there is really no point talking about the past.

“I cannot change the past and would rather focus what we can do today and going forward,” the President and MD of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles India told Business Line in a recent interview.

Basavanhalli has a point considering that he has been in the top seat for barely a couple of years now. In addition, Fiat has achieved precious little during its two-decade stint in India even though it has had the longest brand association going back even further to the 1950s.

As the seventh largest carmaker worldwide, Basavanhalli is confident that things will look up for the Indian operations.

“Today, we have access to platforms which could come from any part of the world be it Brazil, Mexico, Detroit or Turin. This can then be adapted to Indian conditions instead of doing everything all over again,” he says. And even while the company is busy putting its house in order here, especially on the marketing/retail front, it already has a robust back-end operation, Chrysler India Automotive, in Chennai where engineers work on a slew of global programmes. In manufacturing, the joint venture with Tata Motors continues at Ranjangaon near Pune.

“We can pull the engineering and R&D from Chennai, manufacturing at Ranjangaon while accessing global technology. India will play a big role for Fiat in the future and is a strategic market for us,” Basavanhalli says.

Of the five R&D centres in Asia-Pacific, the biggest is in Chennai with over 1,500 engineers. From Fiat’s perspective, India represents the “biggest thinking pool” for the group worldwide where engineers here develop projects in the Americas, Europe, West Asia and Africa.

Global engineering services, local production support and low-cost sourcing opportunities are part of the priority list for Fiat in India. The reporting structure for the region has also changed unlike the past where Turin called the shots. Today, India is an integral part of the Asia-Pacific region which includes China, Japan, Australia and South Korea. With the headquarters located in Shanghai, the decision-making process is now a lot faster and more flexible.

“The sky is the limit and I am really excited about the road ahead especially when emerging markets like India hold the key to Fiat,” Basavanhalli says.

Going forward, dealerships here will have an array of products from Fiat and Chrysler which will translate into the best pool of competencies in SUVs and small cars.

For the moment though, there is a lot of hard work ahead from the viewpoint of building market share.

Nothing has really gone right for Fiat since the time it decided to set up shop here with the Uno way back in the mid-1990s. Some products like the Uno and Palio literally took the market by storm in the early post-launch period only to fizzle out subsequently.

Basavanhalli clearly wants to ensure that nothing of the sort happens again. On the product front, the company has lined up four models this year which include the new Linea and Punto along with the Abarth 500 and Avventura.

For the Chennai-based engineers who are already working with global platforms across regions, the Avventura has perhaps been the most significant project in recent times. It has specifically been conceived for the Indian market targeting the customer who enjoys his weekend in an SUV.

From the company’s point of view, it is important to do the right things for India which could then be as appropriate for the rest of the world. The Avventura is perhaps the first step in this direction and if everything goes according to plan, the cerebral manpower in Chennai could have their hands full with more India-specific products in the future.

The following year will see SUVs coming in from the Chrysler kitty by which time more dealerships will have been added, especially in Tier 2/3 regions. Like other automakers, Fiat will also hope that the economy will start firing on all cylinders after the dreadful slump last fiscal.

“We have kicked off the journey in right earnest and need to build the brand along with products so that customers come back. It is important for us to do the right things and build the fundamental pillars for the results to fall in place,” Basavanhalli says. Little wonder, then, that he would much rather focus on the future.

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