Stellantis India aims to halve vehicle development time, boost localisation

Stellantis India is targeting to halve vehicle development time and ramp up localisation for certain models as it prepares to launch 12 products across Citroen and Jeep brands under its FaSTLAne 2030 roadmap, MD and CEO Shailesh Hazela said.

"Globally, we announced that our ambition is to cut down our development time for bringing new products from 48 months to close to two years, which is around 24 months. That is what we are working on (for) our products, which we are going to launch," Hazela told PTI in an interview.

Stellantis has one of its software and technology centre in Bengaluru.

 

"[Our] India engineering centre is part of the four large tech centres in the world. We have the largest tech centre and they develop cars not only for Jeep and Citroen, but for models globally. So they have the same mandate [cut in product development time] which they will be following," he said.

Also, Stellantis India has a long-standing partnership with Tata Motors Passenger Vehicle for manufacturing through a joint venture. Recently, they signed a definitive agreement to expand the scope of their partnership into advanced technology and product collaboration.

Both the companies plan to jointly develop vehicles for more than 50 global markets and manufacture them in India at Fiat India Automobiles Private Limited, the 50:50 joint venture between Tata Motors and Stellantis.

On localisation, Hazela said Citroen has localisation level in the range of 90-95 per cent, while Jeep brand's localisation stands at around 70-75 per cent.

"We are working on a foundation which is local engineering and local supply chain to get localisation of 90 per cent plus in our products here. That gives us flexibility to be in the pricing range that the market expects," he said.

Meanwhile, Stellantis India has announced an investment of Rs 4,000 crore over the next three years as it prepares to launch 12 models, including seven new, across Citroen and Jeep brands. The investment will be mainly in products, localisation for customer experience.

Jeep brand currently has four models in India - Compass, Wrangler, Meridian and Grand Cherokee, while Citroen also has four models -- C3, BasaltX, AircrossX, C5 Aircross.

Of the new products planned, Jeep brand will get four new models -- one SUV each in B, C and D segments, along with a D segment pickup. Citroen will get three new models -- one C segment SUV, D segment MPV and one A segment car.