Fiat India launched its newest model the Grande Punto hatchback in New Delhi on June 16, with prices starting from a very competitive Rs 3.99 lakh for the base 1.2-litre petrol version. The Grande Punto is also available with a more powerful 1.4-litre petrol engine, which is priced from Rs 4.66 lakh to Rs 5.61 lakh for the three different trim levels called Active, Dynamic and Emotion. The car is also being offered with Fiat’s famed 1.3-litre Multijet engine, which also powers the Maruti Swift and Tata Indica Vista. This version comes in four variants with prices ranging from Rs 4.85 lakh to Rs 6.11 lakh. One reason why Fiat has been able to price this new model so competitively is the relatively high level of localisation of 58 percent from the start of production, which the company plans to increase to around 85 percent by December this year.

The Grande Punto is being manufactured at the company’s new Ranjangaon plant near Pune and has been styled by renowned Italian car designer Giorgetto Giugiaro of ItalDesign. It is based on the Fiat SCCS platform, which was jointly developed with the company’s earlier partner GM.

The Grande Punto has been a big success for Fiat globally with sales of over 1.6 million units since its launch back in 2005 and the success of this model helped Fiat turn around its operations which were near bankruptcy back in 2005. Fiat is targeting monthly sales of around 2,500 units of the Grande Punto, which is part of the premium hatch segment.