Fiat takes back car retail from Tata JV, production to continue

May 2: Fiat and Tata Motors have announced an agreement whereby Fiat’s commercial and distribution activities will be handed over to a new Fiat Group-owned company. This brings to an end the joint distribution of Fiat brand cars by over a 100 Fiat-Tata dealerships that kicked off in 2006.

The Fiat-Tata joint venture – Fiat India Automobiles Limited- also encompassed manufacturing activities which included engines and transmissions for both the Indian and export markets. It recently announced a contract to supply 100,000 1.3 litre Multi-Jet 75hp SDE engines per year to Maruti Suzuki India from January 2012 for a three-year period. In its five-year operations, the Fiat-Tata JV produced some 190,000 cars and 337,000 powertrains. It will continue with these manufacturing activities as they are outside of the new distribution agreement and will supply cars and powertrains to Fiat and Tata.

A new Fiat dealer network is expected to be put in place progressively and the 178 existing Fiat-franchised Tata dealers in 129 cities will be approached to form the foundation of the future network. Fiat’s new distribution company will take over from current Tata-dedicated team assigned to manage the Fiat brand.