Fiat has not produced a single car in February 2019: Exit CONFIRMED?

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA), one of the biggest automobile manufacturer in the world may soon exit from the Indian market. FCA, which owns the Jeep and the Fiat brands has not produced a single unit of cars under the Fiat badge in India in February. This reaffirms the rumours of the brand’s exit from the Indian market soon.

According to MoneyControl, FCA India only produced the Jeep Compass in their Ranjangoan facility in Maharashtra. None of the vehicles coming out of the factory carried a Fiat badge on them. Fiat India has been struggling when it comes to sales for a long time now. All the models of the brand are doing quite poorly in the market, which is forcing the Italian brand to put a new strategy in place.

As per earlier reports, FCA will continue to be operational in the Indian market with the Jeep brand. The American SUV manufacturer currently offers Wrangler, Grand Cherokee, Grand Cherokee SRT and the Compass in the Indian market. All the vehicles of the brand are fully imported except for the Jeep Compass, which is made in India and is exported to the international markets.

Fiat India or FCA is yet to officially confirm the exit from the Indian market. Due to the lack of new inventory in the market, the Fiat dealers have started clearing their stocks by offering massive discounts on the products in hand. Also, the report claims that the production pattern of Fiat India does not match the dealer dispatches. In the month of February, Fiat dispatched 38% more units of the Fiat vehicles while since December 2018, the overall dispatch has grown by 17%.

The Italian brand, Fiat currently offers five products in the Indian market. The entry-level vehicle of the brand is the Punto Evo and there are other vehicles like Abarth Punto, Urban Cross, Avventura and Linea. From 1st April 2019, safety-features like a driver-side airbag, ABS, rear parking sensors and speed alert will be mandatory in the vehicles. However, the Fiat vehicles do not offer most of these features as standard across the range.  They have also not announced about any model update that will add all the mandatory features across the Fiat models.

From October 2019, all the vehicles selling in the market will have to meet mandatory crash test norms laid out by the government and from 2020, BS-VI emission compliance will be implemented in the Indian market. Reportedly, the 1.3-litre diesel engine of Fiat will not be able to meet the stricter emission compliance, which why a lot of manufacturers will stop buying the engines from the Italian brand.

FCA is currently focussing on the Jeep brand in the Indian market and is working to launch two all-new models in the Indian market by 2023. The Jeep Compass is quite popular in the Indian market and with the new models, Jeep is expected to stay in the market for a long time to come.