Fiat (FCA) looking to sell the Jeep brand

When asked about the fact that “if FCA is looking at selling its Jeep brand,” FCA big boss Sergio Marchionne answered with a yes. This could mean a lot to FCA’s future for the Indian car market. At the moment, Fiat has been struggling to live up to its numbers, which doesn’t even make it a competitive player against its European rivals. Fiat India’s plan relays on several new products that will be coming from the Jeep platform. This will include the Jeep Compass and the Jeep Renegade mostly.

For Fiat at the moment, there are no new products for anytime soon in the pipeline. In fact, the plant had increased its R&D strength from 30 back in 2011 to close to 700. The current plant is undergoing as expansion for the increase in production. The Jeep Compass shall be manufactured in India and exported to other right- hand drive markets like UK and Australia. This will help FCA to enhance its sales and the Ranjangaon facility will make more revenue.

However, if the Jeep brand is sold, this will mean that the Italian brand will have to survive purely on Fiat products. The two cars Linea and Punto have been in the market since 2009. They have been getting updates from time to time, but an all new generation is waited for a while. There shall be no all-new products until 2018 from the Fiat brand. From what we understand, it will be Jeep Renegade with a 1.5-litre multijet engine and this will be plonked on the new-generation Fiat sedan as well. The new Fiat sedan will be based on the same SCA (small car architecture) but with some modifications. We aren’t certain if it will be called as Linea and the company should be giving it a new name, new design, more interior space and increase in features too.

The FCA Group is even looking at selling RAM. This will mean that the Group shall be left with Fiat, Chrysler and Dodge. None of these are SUV/ pick-up brands, which could even mean an opportunity to loose out 40% of the buyers in North American markets.