FIAT India might not be launching any new vehicle in 2012 but that does not stop them from actively promoting their current line-up. The Italian car maker has decided to up its marketing activities in the country and is helping couples celebrate Valentine’s day at the FIAT caffe, in an Italian way. The company says that if you visit the FIAT Caffe with your love till the 18th of February 2012, you will get a free test drive of the 2012 Linea or Punto. Test drive are anyways free so what is so special? Well, FIAT Caffe will also serve free Lavazza coffee and cookies to all. At the end of the evening, a portrait of the couple will be gifted to them.

Although this might not really help FIAT in acquiring many new customers, because the company has only 1 Caffe, its a right move none the less. The FIAT Caffe can serve as a joint for owners to meet and discuss their love for the Italian brand over a cup of coffee. The Fiat Caffe also has the Punto and Linea on display along with the history of the brand displayed on the walls. Furthermore the Caffe is also a place where enthusiasts can purchase FIAT branded merchandise.

Fiat India Automotive Limited (FIAL), a joint venture between Tata Motors and Fiat India for producing FIAT engines would be reaching its full capacity after its recent successful deal with Maruti Suzuki to provide additional 1 lakh diesel units per year to make up for supplying the additional demand in diesel cars. Till now, Maruti Suzuki had obtained a license pact from FIAT under which they were authorised to manufacture the Fiat sourced diesel engine at its own plant. The need for 1 lakh diesel engines will be additionally supplied by FIAT while the existing license would continue to remain the same.

“The recent agreement with Maruti would definitely take plant capacity forward and Tata motors also plans to produce more cars from here. This calendar year the capacity is fully utilised,” said Piyush Lall, Assistant GM, Fiat Brands – Tata Motors.

When FIAT starts supplying 1 lakh engines, it will be attain its full capacity of production. FIAT, based in Ranjangaon near Pune is currently utilizing 70% of its total capacity which will it will be reaching 100% after starting its supply to Maruti Suzuki. FIAT manufactures the 1.3 litre diesel and the 1.4 litre FIRE gasoline engines at this plant. In total, the FIAT plant has a annual capacity to produce 1 lakh cars and 3.5 lakh engines along with 3 lakh parts and accessories.

He also added that under the deal between Maruti Suzuki and FIAT, FIAT would be supplying 1 lakh 1.3-litre Multijet 75 BHP diesel engines annually for a period of 3 years. The 1.3 litre Multijet engine is also fitted to Fiat’s Punto and Tata indica Vista apart from a slew of Maruti Suzuki models. With so much demand for diesels now, FIAT will definitely be looking at bright times ahead of it.

A few days ago we reported FIAT India will be offering ground clearance kits to old Linea and Grand Punto customers, which will help them to increase the ground clearance of the old cars to the 2012 MY Fiats. This exercise is being carried out at the dealer level and now the company has revealed the pricing for these upgrades. The FIAT Linea and Fiat Grande Punto Diesel Ground Clearance Kit is priced at Rs. 10899.60/-, while the Ground Clearance kit for the Grande Punto Petrol is priced at Rs. 11900.30/-. Labour charges are extra and not included in the prices of the kit. These kits have to be specially ordered at the service center and might not be available freely.

Based on reader feedback, not many FIAT owners wants to upgrade the ground clearance of their vehicles and most are satisfied with the ground clearance of their cars. What owners do want is the new features offered in the 2012 MY FIATs and tweaking of the engine for more power. We feel the pricing is slightly on the higher side but we yet to see what parts are being used so won’t comment on it till we see it in person. Hopefully the job is carried on smoothly without any hitch for FIAT owners.

The German car manufacturers are undoubtedly one of the biggies in terms of global presence and sales volumes in the automotive market. Giving them a challenge is not child’s play. The French and Italian manufacturers like PSA Peugeot and Fiat tough produce good cars provide no match to their German rivals. The reason: the enormous financial firepower and wide global reach of the German companies. The German auto giant, Volkswagen currently has a 23.3% share in the European auto market. Fiat and Peugeot though have strong presence in this market, but recently witnessed a fall in its total market share due to global slowdown.

Fiat-Chrylser CEO, Mr. Sergio Marchionne commented that the company is certainly looking at options to get into a tie-up and Peugeot might be a good option. However, he denied that any talks were taking place between the 2 companies. He also added that Fiat is looking forward to share its A and B platforms which will enable it to save billions on development costs. On the other hand, Peugeot had 1.65 billion euros of industrial net debt as of June 30, is expected to report a significant full-year auto division loss on Feb. 15 after repeatedly slashing targets.

The Fiat-PSA alliance could work out in their favour. Peugeot has got models like the 308 and the Citroen C4, segments which would help Fiat to increase its presence in them while Fiat is very strong in compact car segment (Fiat 500) where Peugeot lack good presence. Fiat is already having its presence in India while Peugeot is entering India soon. From the Indian scenario, Fiat could take the help of Peugeot to introduce new models in India while Peugeot can take help of Fiat’s presence in the small car market to increase its own presence.

Source – AutoNews

FIAT India has frozen launch plans of its own branded cars but that does not stop them from launching vehicles from its other brands. The Italian automaker has stepped up on its marketing activities in the country, first with the launch of FIAT Caffe, following it with offering old customers new features, which are present on the MY 2012 FIAT’s. Now the company is planning to launch Chrysler’s Jeep, in which it has a majority stake as well as bringing in Alfa Romeo and Maserati.

The launch of Chrysler in India is already in secondary stage, as officials from the U.S. automaker recently visited the country to conduct product clinics for the Jeep Grande Cherokee. Jeep is the oldest 4-wheel drive brand in the world, dating back to pre-world war era. The Jeep Grand Cherokee uses the same underpinnings as the Mercedes-Benz ML-Class and is powered by a 3.6-litre, V6 engine producing 280 BHP of power and 353 Nm of torque at 4800 RPM. If you feel that Grande Cherokee is underpowered then Chrsyler will happlly offer you a 5.7-litre HEMI V8 engine, which produces 360 BHP of power and 520 Nm of torque. Both these engines are powered by petrol but FIAT will definitely slap in their Multijet power for the SUV it plans to sell in India. Expect the Grand Cherokee to be priced around Rs. 20 lakhs, competing with the Toyota Fortuner.

The sale if Jeep and other cars from the FIAT stable will be outside of the TATA-FIAT JV. The Jeep vehicles will be brought in through the CKD route and assembled at Ranjangaon. Maserati and Alfa Romeo will be brought in through the CBU route though as the company does not see volumes to justify local assembly. It is not rocket science that Chrysler has shown interest in bringing its vehicles to developing brands like India. Now the question remains, will you buy the Grand Cherokee at Rs. 20 lakhs, which will be backed up by FIAT?

FIAT fans won’t like this bit of news. FIAT India has announced that it has reached a further agreement to supply the 1.3-litre, BSIV compliant, Multijet diesel engine in the 75 HP tune to Maruti Suzuki for the next three years. The supply will start this month and every year FIAT will supply Maruti Suzuki with 1 lakh diesel engines for use in the Ritz, Swift and Swift DZire. The production of these engines will commence in the fourth week of January at FIAT-Tata’s joint venture plant in Ranjangaon near Pune. These engines are other than the ones which FIAT already licenses to Maruti Suzuki for production by Suzuki powertrain India. With FIAT also supply Premier with Multijet engines for the Rio compact SUV, is the Italian automaker relying too heavily on the Multijet motor to earn its bread and butter in the Indian market?

FIAT is offering owners of the pre-2012 Grande Punto and Linea an option to upgrade their cars ground clearance to that of the recently launched 2012 models. The company has commenced this exercise at the dealer for a nominal cost. The Italian automaker has made kits, wherein you can also update features of the 2012 FIATs on your old Punto or Linea. FIAT says this is part of their efforts to remember old customers and give them good service. Remember, FIAT forgot Uno customer when they launched Palio, then they forgot Palio customers when they launched Linea but hopefully they don’t forget any of their customers anymore.

FIAT India upgraded the ground clearance of the 2012 Linea and Grande Punto to 185 mm. The Punto 1.2 petrol has an even higher ground clearance of 195 mm. The old Grande Punto Diesel variants have a ground clearance of 171 mm, while the petrol variants have a ground clearance of 173 mm. The Linea has a ground clearance of 170 mm. Many FIAT owners have complained that their cars scrape speed-breakers and hence the ground clearance was raised by the company factoring in customer feedback.

Thanks Mohit Soni for the tip.

FIAT India announced the launch of its awesome new FIAT Caffe in Delhi. The FIAT Caffe is a place where FIAT fans come meet up to sip some Italian coffee while they ogle at the Punto standing inside. Jokes aside, the FIAT Caffe has been developed to pull customers to the Italian brand and build the brand. The place is located at the prime of the city and will help the company to communicate about its brand to people. There is a library inside to impart knowledge about FIAT and its group of companies. There is a rumour that a Maserti will soon find space inside the FIAT Caffe. Meanwhile you can checkout the pictures below to have a virtual tour of the awesome Caffe.

FIAT has launched its first FIAT Caffe in India. Opened at Tolstoy Marg, the Cafee will help FIAT promote its brand to customers. Another Caffe is coming up in Pune, making India the only country in the world to have multiple FIAT Caffes. Special trained staff will help prospective customers in getting more details on a FIAT car, including a test drive and all the details of the vehicle. International FIAT merchandise is on sale as well and the theme of the Caffe is very Italian. There is a library at the Caffe as well, which will feature books on FIAT’s history. The first FIAT Caffe is located at 40-42, Janpath, Connaught Place, New Delhi and the company claims the Italian coffee is a must have.

“The launch of FIAT Caffe is an integral part of our strategy to showcase our commitment to the Indian customer and market. With this Caffe we aim to promote our Italian heritage and the ‘real’ FIAT brand, by engaging a passionate connect amongst the audience and prospects with FIAT automobiles. The Caffe will provide us with an opportunity to hold an array of events, both car and lifestyle related, demonstrating the values and culture we share at FIAT, amidst the Italian ambiance while sipping on authentic Italian coffee,” Mr. Rajeev Kapoor, President and CEO, FIAT India, said.

The Italian auto manufacturer Fiat has gone through a highly turbulent times in the Indian market inspite of rolling out some globally successful models like the Punto and the Linea. The sales of the company were down 15% last fiscal at a meagre 21,066 units, a time when there was a boom in the Indian auto market with a growth of about 30%. In the period of April-November, the sales were down a massive 31% and stood at 10,351 units. Most of the auto analysts over the years have attributed the declining sales to the co-existence of Fiat and Tata branded cars at the same showroom. Fiat had hired global consultancy firm Accenture as well as auto research firm JD Power to suggest ways to improve its position in India and they also had the same feeling. So, finally the joint venture between Fiat and Tata Motors for the marketing and sales of Fiat branded cars has finally come to an end.

To boost its presence in the Indian market and increase its brand awareness, Fiat has now decided to come up with their own dealerships. Mr. Ravi G Bhatia, VP (Commercial) of Fiat India Automobiles, said that these showrooms will be 3S facilities (Sales, Service and Spares) and will be displaying Fiat’s brand identity and style quotient to the Indian market. At first, these independent showrooms will be coming up in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Bangalore, Pune, Jaipur and Hyderabad. Fiat hopes to successfully carry out this transition in its 45 dealerships by 2014 and in all the 67 by 2015. Fiat has also roped in its international architect for the design and layout of its new dealerships. He also added that there will be a small cafe present at the dealerships for better customer experience.