Fiat foresees Grande drive to break-even in 2 years

[wildon]

Bangalore: Fiat India is betting on its new models -- compact car Grande Punto and sedan Linea -- to drive it into the break-even zone two years from now.


The 50:50 JV between Fiat Group Automobiles and Tata Motors, which sold just 8,000 odds cars in 2008, expects the number to swell to 50,000 units this year. Company officials say that as much as 90% of the sales this year would come from Grande Punto and Linea.

"Grande Punto will be our volumes driver going ahead as we see a huge under-tapped market in the premium compact car segment. Our sedan Linea, since its launch, has already become the second-largest selling car in its segment after Honda City," said S Krishnan, VP -- commercial passenger cars, Tata Motors.

Krishnan said that the company is currently looking at some other cars from Fiat's international portfolio for an Indian debut. However, he also added that it's too early to comment on the segment or model.In overseas markets, the parent Fiat Group sells popular models like Panda, Doblo and Multipla.

Like several of its other competitors like GM and Toyota, Fiat India is also shifting its focus to the compact car segment. Rajeev Kapoor, CEO of Fiat India, said that the company has put on hold the launch of its D segment premium hatchback that would have cost Rs 25 lakh in India.

"We are bullish the compact car segment and will look to launch an India specific compact car going ahead. I cannot give you a time frame as we are studying the market, but certainly compact cars will be a priority," said Rajeev Kapoor, CEO, Fiat India.
Fiat India will also increase focus on its other small car range -- Palio and Fiat 500. The focus on the compact car is commensurate with the company's plans to sell 2 lakh units annually by 2015.

Source:[DNA]

[bottle]

Hope they get in the facelifted palio too

[amtak]

+1 to that. I had heard that they are planning a "interior revamp". Can someone from PUG confirm?

[pb10gagan]

what number of sale is FIAT india targeting for punto per month?
for linea i think they targeted 2500 per month intially, last month the sale was around 900-1000 units if i remember.
its good to be confident, but isnt this overconfidence?

[amtak]

They are targetting 2500 units a month with the Punto.

[tez]

Originally Posted by amtak

+1 to that. I had heard that they are planning a "interior revamp". Can someone from PUG confirm?

yes , There is going to be a revamp of palio's interioir as mentioned in a mail i had received from Fiat for one of my complaints in TD.

[johnjose70]

The GP has potential to pull up the company's fortunes in India, provided they do not mess up the after sales part. Fiat has a good car in their hands now, if they bring the A.S.S upto acceptable levels, i'm sure the company can move ahead!

[downsouth]

This is PR stuff for the GP launch can’t you see it?. IMHO, if FIAL launches a face lifted Palio with the combined sales of the Palio, GP, Linea, (I am not counting the 500 here) they will not reach 50000. Even if they do that will be about 100K I don’t think they will break-even. But the article does not mention the engine’s which will be built and sold from FIAL, if that accounts for a substantial percentage of revenue then they could break-even. What they are talking about is the GP sales, trust me it is just the initial enthusiasm.

P.S. I own a Linea petrol E+

[amtak]

DS: The articles mentions that FIAL sold 8,00 cars last year. Assuming that 5,000 were Palios and remaining 2K Linea (I know it got launched only this year).

2000*12 GP = 24,000
1000*12 Lineas = 12,000
3-4K Palios

I see a respectable figure of 40K units next year.