Fiat and Tata Motors have jointly announced in a press announcement that they will re-align their Joint Venture in India. The Fiat-Tata joint venture which came into existence in India in 2006 includes joint manufacturing facilities, sales and service network in India. The joint venture between the two Automobile companies will stay but the sales and service part of the Fiat cars in India is being handed over to a new Fiat owned company which will develop Fiat Exclusive dealerships and service facilities in India independent of the Tata Motors sales and service facilities. The management control of Fiat’s commercial and distribution activities are being handed over to a separate Fiat Group owned company.
The Fiat Tata joint venture produces cars and powertrains for Tata Motors as well as Fiat India, and will continue to provide the manufacturing facilities at Ranjangaon in the State of Maharashtra. The the past years of its operations in India, Fiat-Tata Joint venture has produces over 1,90,000 cars and 3,37,000 powertrains.
Fiat and Tata will take care of smooth transition of the Distribution, Sales and Service activities from Tata Motors to Fiat owned company in India. The Fiat owned company will take care of the dealership network, service network and distribution activities. What is means for the customers and Fiat brand in India is that the Fiat cars will get dedicated dealerships which will attract more buyers as Fiat does have a richer and more premium brand image associated with it. Also the after sales service of the Fiat cars will be handled by Fiat’s own company which is an encouraging news for Fiat customers as Tata Motors’s vehicles are much larger in number and are used in commercial applications in huge numbers in India. So Fiat customer’s common complaint in India is regarding the after sales service facilities which are expected to become more premium with the dedicated Fiat service facilities. Fiat has opened first few exclusive brand stores called the Fiat Caffe in India during the Auto Expo 2012 in New Delhi India. These Café’s serve coffee and in the Italian style with Fiat cars at display so that customers can experience the Fiat India cars up and close. As of now there are just two cars in Fiat India portfolio which is Fiat Grande Punto 2012 and Fiat Linea 2012, we hope that Fiat will bring more cars to India in future as it has recently unveiled luxury sedan Fiat Viaggio at the Beijing Auto Show of 2012.
