Fiat Out Sold By Luxury and Aircraft Manufacturers when numbers are put together in multiple scenarios. FCA faces stiff competition from all manufactuers now, not just top two
The dwindling prospects of Fiat in India are a matter of speculation for many. While some say that Fiat is going to wind up its Indian operations others are optimistic about the company’s comeback with new/upgraded products. In 2018, Fiat sold a total of 743 cars in India which is even less than the 806 planes delivered by Boeing in the same year. While the Boeing sales number were from worldwide sales, you get the drill, don’t you?. While Mercedes sold around 15,000 unit, which isn’t a comparison, Volvo sold around 2400 units the country, who stand at number four position in the country out of the five manufacturers.
The rumors of Fiat’s pack up are not new as in 2016 some reports claimed that Italian car maker had decided to quit the Indian market. However, Fiat’s officials quickly refuted the claims and said that the company had solid future plans with a number of new models and upgrades were in line to make their Indian debut.
Interestingly, the sister brand of the Fiat, Jeep launched its premium Compass SUV in India in July 2017 which became the runaway success for the brand. For the most part of 2017 and 2018, Compass sold well although of late the sales of Compass have come under pressure as the competition hottens up. Coming back to the Fiat brand, its product stable in India consists of six vehicles – Urban Cross, Abarth Punto, Punto Evo, Linea, and Avventura. All these products are based on Linea and Punto platforms which have become quite old according to the industry standards.
We are still to receive any kind of cue from the Fiat about upgradation of these platforms to possibly spawn new products for India. Summing up, low sales in 2018 and apparently no new launch in sight in 2019, the chances of Fiat’s resurgence look bleak in near future. Fiat needs to infuse some new products to bring back the customers to its fold; otherwise it will become difficult for the company to survive in an intensely competitive Indian automobile market. We want the enthusiast favorite brand to jump back ASAP. Good luck FCA!
