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May 15, 2001
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Money > Business Headlines > Report May 15, 2001 |
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Fiat Palio launch deferred to year-endNetScribes/Mahesh Shetty Bombay-based Fiat India has pushed back the launch of its new mid-size car, the Palio, due to issues with the car's indigenisation plans. The car, earlier set for launch in August, is not expected before Christmas or even later. To ensure that it achieves a competitive target price, the company is aiming for a high degree of local content - possibly more than 50-55 per cent - to start with. Fiat India is aiming at a competitive target price in the range of Rs 375,000-400,000. This is to keep it at par with the Santro and the Zen, the market leaders in the segment today. "The company is trying to iron out localisation issues. They have an internal indigenisation target to ensure that the pricing is competitive," said a source in the industry. The company is reportedly in talks with its suppliers to ensure that the car's on-road price stays competitive in a market where Fiat has lost out to more aggressive players like Maruti, Hyundai and Ford. The company could not be reached for comments on the issue. The soft launch was earlier expected to be in June-July, with August pegged as the tentative month of launch. The car is said to be a 2-box model in the Zen/Santro range, but is expected to be slightly larger than the current range of cars in the segment. The car will be made in two basic grades - 1.3-litre with EL, ELX and sports variants, and a larger 1.6-litre version. Fiat India has set a sales target of 40,000 cars for this calendar year and plans to up that to 50,000 cars for the year 2002. Of this, Fiat is aiming to sell 40,000 Palios and 10,000 Sienas. Fiat India's sales have been falling consistently over the past three months. In April, the company saw sales of its small car, the Uno, fall 60 per cent over the same month last year, while its mid-sized sedan, the Siena, sold 52 per cent less than the April 2000 figure. |
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