Fiat sales remain moderate, partnership with Tata drives no gain

The partnership between India based Tata Motors and Italy based Fiat group does not seem to prove that fruitful for the latter.  Despite the presence of its two highly competitive cars - Fiat Linea and Fiat Punto, that are available in both diesel and petrol version in the Indian market, the company is registering moderate sales figures at a comparatively low growth rate. According to market watchers, Fiat India could have performed better in the country with these two high-performing cars.

In a recent statement, Mr Rajeev Kapoor, MD of Fiat's India operations, had told to a leading news daily in India that the company's sales could have been better, considering it has two competitive products — Linea sedan and Punto compact, both of which come with petrol and diesel engine options. He accepted that the numbers could have been better.

The dealer-ship network of this duo can not be blamed for this average performance of Fiat in India as the service-network of this joint-venture has witnessed a threefold increase to 175 outlets during last one year. Though the company had registered a whooping 208 percent growth in the Indian market in FY 09-10, it still holds a market share of mere 1.6 percent in India. The total sales of the auto-industry during 2009-10 was 1.52 million units, while the Italian auto-giant  manage to sell just 24,806 units during the period. 

Since the last six months, the company has been selling about 2,100 units monthly on an average, which is even lesser than the partially phased-out Maruti 800's monthly sales of 2,500 units.  

Meanwhile, the Fiat group is constantly working on enhancing its dealership base and customer reach in the country. The company has set-up separate sales teams dedicated to the different models so that a single model can be focused at a time and sales can be pushed upwards.

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