Fiat India to launch India-specific small car by 2011

Fiat India confirmed that they are working on a small car project exclusively for Indian market.

The initial reports confirmed that the car will be tailor made for Indian market and units are to be manufactured from the Ranjangaon plant near Pune in Maharashtra, where the company makes the other models including Palio, Grade Punto and Linea. In the past, the company denied plans about manufacturing cheap cars.

Fiat’s Small Car Technical specifications:

The car is expected to come out both in petrol and diesel engines and the engine capacity is said to be 700 – 1000 cc.

Fiat India Automobiles President and CEO told reporters, “We are in the process of creating a vehicle for India which will be positioned at the mass market. The designing is being undertaken at our headquarters in Turin, Italy. We intend to launch this in 2011 and the prototype is being worked on.”

Silverio Bonfiglioli, COO, International Operations, Fiat group Automobiles S.p.A., had earlier told reporters in Mumbai, “The demand for small cars has been rising exponentially and Fiat is looking at generating volumes by introducing more such cars. We will be launching a new global car designed for the needs of the Indian and other emerging markets. However, we have no plans to enter the Nano segment.”  When questioned about the car’s positioning, he said, “We are developing different low cost cars, and one can be for launch in India. But it will be in the upper low cost segment, in the price range of Rs. 4-5 lakh.”

Meanwhile Fiat India is also all set to introduce CNG bandwagon next year.  The company plans to launch a couple of CNG powered vehicles and they are expected in few months.

Rajeev Kapoor, Fiat India Automobiles president and CEO said “We are working on the CNG variant of a few models. The first one will be rolled out in the second quarter of next (calendar) year.”

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November 20, 2009 by Kamal
Filed under: Cars 

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