News: Fiat eyes one lakh sales in India

(BL 03/05/2007) Istanbul - On a comeback trail in India, identified as a key market for its global turnaround strategy, Italian auto major Fiat on Thursday said it was looking at selling 1 lakh units of cars planned to be launched next year. "We want to accelerate our entry into key emerging markets. I think India is a market where we could actually get above the 1,00,000 threshold if the market develops in the right direction," Fiat Automobiles Spa Chief Executive Officer, Luca De Meo said here. Fiat has a tie-up with home grown auto maker Tata Motors to manufacture passenger cars, engines and transmissions for the Indian and overseas markets. Tata Motors already distributes and markets Fiat cars in the country. The company, which launched its luxury sedan Linea here, will be driving the product to India next year and is eyeing to sell about 50,000 to 60,000 units of the car annually in the country, he said. Fiat was confident that it would be able to scale up sales with Grande Punto, a premium hatchback car on the anvil for India launch next year, and existing compact car Palio Stile, Meo said. He, however, declined to comment on exact timeframe as to when the company would meet its sales target. The company is banking on Linea to make its presence felt in the Indian market and is even looking at making the country an export hub for all the right-hand drive car markets, he added. On auto component sourcing, he said Fiat was not only looking at increasing its localisation content for models to be sold in India, but would also increase levels of sourcing for global operations as well.