Succeeding Kevin Flynn, who has been appointed to the role of President and Chief Executive Officer at FCA Australia, Dr Partha Datta will assume the role of President and Managing Director at FCA India. Datta, an American citizen of Indian Origin, joined FCA in 1999 as an engineer. Over the past twenty years, he has worked across international industrial and commercial operations, governance, business development projects, engineering and vehicle integration. During his tenure at FCA, Dr Datta was also the Director of Technical Centres in Chennai and Pune, as well as the Head of Product Engineering in China.
In his most recent role as Head of North American Vehicle Integration & Validation, Dr Datta led a workforce of over 1500 employees, and the integration development activities for over 30 vehicle lines. He was responsible for all validation activities across all Jeep, Fiat, Alfa Romeo, Chrysler, Dodge and RAM models sold in North America. Announcing this management change, Massimiliano Trantini, Chief Operating Officer, FCA Asia Pacific, said, “I am very pleased to appoint Partha to his new role in India. He is an accomplished executive with a passion for driving innovation. With his extensive product development experience and intimate understanding of the local market, Partha is the perfect candidate to take over the India operation, particularly given our plans to continue localizing new models and exporting Jeep vehicles to right-hand-drive markets around the world.”
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FCA India’s brand Jeep unveiled the 2019 Wrangler in India a few weeks ago. The revered off-roader is now available at a price of INR 63.94 lakh (ex-showroom). The 2019 Wrangler is powered by a new 2.0-litre turbo-petrol engine which is specially tuned to increase low-end torque for better off-roading capabilities. The motor cranks out 268 HP, 400 Nm of peak torque while being paired with an 8-speed automatic gearbox. The doors and the roof in the all-new Jeep Wrangler can be removed to make the car more light and off-road-ready, while the windscreen can also be folded down for an enhanced Jeep-like experience. The new generation model of the Wrangler also gets 29mm of extra ride height and better water fording capabilities when compared to the previous generation model. Some of the other features also include an all-weather subwoofer, a weather-proof start-stop button and a 552 W amplifier.