Fiat Small Car for India: More details emerge!

Fiat Uno Hatchback used as an illustration

IndianCarsBikes was the first automobile blog in India to report about the latest buzz on Fiat’s small car plans and also a new model which could be the Fiat Sedici Crossover. Now, we have a bunch of details emerging about Fiat’s small car, that could be launched in the Indian small car market in 2012.

Mr Rajiv Kapoor, the Fiat India president and chief executive officer revealed a couple of details about the Fiat small car for India. First of all, the Fiat small car is under development in the Fiat Research and Development center at Turin, Italy. Fiat India’s operations team at New Delhi will also give inputs to ensure that the design and development keeps in mind the needs of the Indian car buyer and the Indian market.

Fiat Uno Hatchback used as an illustration

To keep initial purchase cost as well as maintenance costs low, Fiat India is looking at a localization figure of around 80-85% for its small car. This apart, the car could be a replacement to the Fiat Palio Hatchback, which incidentally sells only in BS3 Indian cities currently after Fiat India chose not to make it BS4 complaint.

On the other hand, the Fiat Small Car could also sit below the Palio as an entry level small car to take on the likes of the Maruti Alto, Chevrolet Spark and the Hyundai Santro Xing. In essence, the exact positioning of the Fiat small car either hasn’t been decided yet or Fiat India wants to keep us guessing.

Fiat Uno Hatchback used as an illustration

While engine specifications and other details of the Fiat small car haven’t been revealed, expect the latest in engine technology to be introduced in India, especially of the diesel variant as Fiat has been a global leader in small capacity diesel engines. The small car will be made at Fiat’s plant at Ranjangaon, off Pune. Meanwhile, here’s what Mr Rajiv Kapoor had to say about the small car.

The small car is under development. We had announced earlier that our intention is to launch it in 2012. The exact timing and details will be shared when we will be ready with the product. There are different routes and opportunity to launch a model in India and the completely built unit route is one of them. Every route is open to us and we are still evaluating.

Fiat Uno Hatchback used as an illustration

Via Rediff

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July 6, 2011 | By Jay Prashanth · Tags:

Comments

One Response to “Fiat Small Car for India: More details emerge!”

manoj tewatia on July 14th, 2011 6:17 pm

THE NEW FIAT UNO HATCHBACK WHICH WILL BE LAUNCHED IN 2012 SOMETIME, WILL BE REALLY THRILLING US. WE ARE EXPECTING THAT THE COMPANY WILL LAUNCH IT EARLY IN 2012 BOTH IN PETROL/DIESEL WITH A BETTER SERVICE NETWORK AND SPARE-PART AVAILABILITY.

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