re: Roland Bouchara appointed CEO of Stellantis India (Jeep and Citroen) Partha Datta is very strong technically.
Looks like Stellantis's focus is now on rolling out relevant India focussed products, designed and developed at its R&D centre at Chennai. This is indeed a welcome piece of news & if segment specific, value laden products can be developed at a competitive cost, the retail pricing will undoubtedly be in line with competition, giving Stellantis a fighting chance in the market. And it can be done, because this is exactly what Stellantis's arch rival, Renault-Nissan, located a few kilometres down the road, did six years back, to rattle the cages of Maruti in the entry segment.
Calculated guesswork would say, Stellantis, launching a sub 4m SUV, (with AWD to keep the Jeep DNA alive), a Creta rival and a full size sedan under the Citroen badge, (branded "Ambassador" ??) in the coming days.
What Stellantis should do, after they strengthen their sales and service network, is to launch a product in the hatchback segment under the "Fiat" brand. It would be foolish for Stellantis to write-off Fiat from India, as even now, the brand equity of that marque is tremendous amongst Indian customers. No one complained about Fiat car's performance, it's the after sales service that customers had nightmares about.
Our request to Partha Datta would be to get a model with the Fiat Panda moniker, which would compete in the entry B hatch.
Also, to seriously consider the reintroduction of the "Uno" brand in the B+ (premium) hatch segment. (Till now the long dead Fiat Uno's booking figures hold a record amongst all new car bookings in India).
And the "Fiat Multipla" to take on the Triber-Ertiga segment.
Being a freshly minted company, Stellantis can do a lot many things in India. It has the economies of scale, a robust parts & platform commonisation capability and huge depth of engineering skills.
Will it, won't it...?? Let time be the witness!
All the best to the team! |