New Fiat owned company to manage sales and distribution of its cars in India

The official word is out, finally. While we have already reported to you that Fiat is working towards developing a separate dealership network for its car, the Tata Fiat, JV today released an official statement about the development. According to the new plan, the management control of Fiat’s commercial and distribution activities will be handed over to a separate Fiat Group owned company. Currently Tata Motors has been managing the distribution responsibility of the Fiat branded products in India through joint Tata-Fiat dealerships. The decision has apparently been taken by the Tata Fiat JV to further develop the Fiat brand in India. Tata Motors will hand over the distribution and service responsibility for Fiat cars in India to a Fiat Group owned company being formed for this purpose.

 The new company, however, will overlook only the commercial distribution and service of the Fiat cars in India. The manufacturing activities of the JV, via the plant located in Ranjangoan, Maharashtra will continue to supply cars and powertrains to both Tata and Fiat.

Development of the new Fiat dealer network for India will start progressively and the 178 existing Fiat-franchised Tata dealers in 129 cities will be encouraged to form the foundation of the future network.

Fiat will establish a new, separate, company which will assume responsibility for all commercial and service related activities from the current Tata-dedicated team assigned to manage the Fiat brand. Both, Fiat and Tata will endeavor to ensure a smooth transition of sales and service support to customers and the dealer network.

Thank god for Fiat India having woken up to the requirement of a separate dealer and service network. We just hope that they carry out the process professionally enough to uplift the experience of their customers.