We do not want to get into the mass (car) segment: Nagesh Basavanhalli

Interview with President & Managing Director, Fiat Chrysler India

With the competition among car makers is getting fierce with companies bringing new models at cheaper price to lure buyers, Italian car maker, Fiat Chrysler India says it has no plans to join the price war by slashing prices of its existing models. Nagesh Basavanhalli, president and managing director, Fiat Chrysler India speaks to Rutam Vora as to why it is not interested to jump into the price war and what is their strategy to mark their presence in the Indian market. Edited Excerpts:

There is a price war between the companies to attract customers in the dull market conditions. Are you contemplating to bring down  prices of your existing models?
We are not into price war. Our strength is our quality, innovation and technology. The group is big and we have access to platforms from Europe, North America and South America. So we can bring better products that can be adapted or engineered for Indian conditions. And that’s what we are going to bring. Fiat is already present in the 70% of the auto market with its B+ and C segments.

Now we are going into sports utility vehicle (SUV) segment, so that’s another 10%. Now, only a small portion of around 10% is remaining for the A segment, or the small car segment. We do not want to get into mass segment as our strength is in B, C segment. So we will concentrate on B and C segments.

What is the strategy that you have adopted to grow in the Indian market after your split with the Tata Motors on dealership front?
We have adopted a three-pillar strategy to mark our presence in India. This is based on network, branding and products. This helps us to go directly to the Indian customers and not through a partner and cater to our customers better. On the branding side, we had to reintroduce the Fiat brand because we felt that the brand had grown over the years and there is a need to get connected with new customer class.

And on the product strategy, we are planning to launch nine new or significantly upgraded models from the existing ones. Four of them will be from Fiat brand, four from Jeep brand, which is also a Fiat brand and a performance car from Abrath brand. These will be introduced in phased manner over the next two-three years.

What will be your marketing strategy in the current market scenario?
There are about 200,000 Fiat cars in India. They are Fiat customers, who owned this car earlier and now probably shifted to other brands. Fiat was a household name in the past. Now, we want to approach these customers, mainly in the smaller towns and bring back to us. Cities like Ahmedabad, Baroda, Surat are very strong hold of Fiat customers.

So main thing is to get back our old customers, give them the right service experience and sales experience. There are die hard fans of Fiat brand, waiting for a dealership to get located nearby them. So, when we have those types of people, than price doesn’t matter. We are very fortunate to have them.

How you plan to grow the company in coming years?
We want to be a significant player in this market. We were a top player once, we want to get back. We want to double our market share, which is less than 1% as of now. We sell around 7,000 cars per annum, we are looking to double this number after opening 100 dealerships by the end of this year.

We have the technology, innovation and great brands worldwide. So, we believe we are the right company that over time the Indian consumers would like to love.Also, we have the largest parts stock room in Asia and that is located close to our factory. We are stocking components there. And they can be supplied to any part of the country within 3 working days. So our service commitment can be met.

With new launches in the pipeline, are you looking at expanding production capacity in the coming years?
No. That is not required as we’ve sufficient capacity to produce 200,000 cars and 300,000 engines and transmissions at our existing facility at Rajnangaon near Pune.