Fiat Chrysler To Invest $250 Million In India Unit To Unveil New SUVs

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV (FCA) said on Tuesday it will invest $250 million to grow its presence in India with the launch of four new sport-utility vehicles (SUVs) under its Jeep brand over the next two years.

The investment will be made to locally manufacture a mid-size, three-row SUV, assemble the Jeep Wrangler and Jeep Cherokee vehicles in the country and launch a new version of its Jeep Compass SUV, FCA said in a statement.

FCA currently has less than a 1 per cent share of India’s passenger vehicle market. Adding new vehicles to its portfolio is expected to help the automaker increase local sourcing of components, achieve better economies of scale, reduce costs and boost sales.

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles N.V., often abbreviated as FCA, is an Italian-American multinational corporation and is the world’s eighth largest auto maker. The group was established in October 2014 by merging Fiat and Chrysler into a new holding company.

“Our new investment of $250 million will give us a competitive edge in multiple segments,” Partha Datta, managing director for FCA India said in the statement, adding that it is determined to increase locally-made components in its vehicles.

The investment comes at a time when automakers globally have been battered by the pandemic, and automakers in India have been further stung with the domestic market slowing down even ahead of this in 2019.