FIAT India Sales

FIAT Sales 2017 (from Management Punditz), added April numbers

Jan - 288
Feb - 316
Mar - 353
Apr - 292

 

Maruti has again gained marketshare: above 50% again in April. As has hyundai.

Why? A greater dealer strength, and esp a greater ability to out-discount all-comers, esp since they also have several all-new models that are in any case all hits pretty much.

A number of other firms have had to undertake HUGE price cuts (eg., Ford's ecosport, Nissan's micra and sunny) post so-called de-monetization, apart from forced heavy discounting and the whole bs3 inventory fiasco. And still their sales numbers are below say June 2016, let alone the festive season good sales (the FIRST in 4 years) in october 2016.

There are others that have launched several all-new models costing many hundreds of crores each to launch BUT still barely have any growth relative to say june 2016, let alone october 2016 (i.e., the eve of notebandi), such as Tata.

2016 saw MASSIVE investments in new models and new dealers etc by so many firms (for eg., mahindra, tata, ford, skoda+vw, mercedes, toyota, honda, even fca with the new jeep destination store dealerships) and yet even in April 2017 when we are told 'de-monetization' has had little to no effect most of these firms are below their june, july or october 2016 sales numbers, let alone returns-on-large-investments.

Point is: the luxury car brand sales and margins (for firms and dealers) and two-wheeler ones are NOT the only ones still in the sticks because of 'de-monetization'.

So are the margins for dealers and firms of pv-s too, nevermind the on-paper total sales growth of now upto 3m a year sales-rate. Even Toyota with 2 exorbitantly priced hot sellers, the new Innova and new fortuner, is still down relative to october 2016, mahindra had several all-new models: same story. Tata has the Tiago, now the Tigor and hexa too but it's total sales let alone margins are still flat at best on july-oct 2016.

The new Jeep dealers got caught in the de-monetization storm: a case of bad timing if ever there was one. CBU-pricing was always a challenge in any case, but to not have been able to sell many cbu Jeeps while the new dealers were prepping for the new Compass would really have soured the new dealers, one imagines. FCA will of course have to compensate them somehow and to some degree.

Of course, the only winner from such a liquidity- and policy-shock (the cash demonization) is, predictably: maruti suzuki (and Hyundai), which is hardly surprising. Dominant firms with huge pricing power, vast and wide distribution and the ability to offer discounts etc ALWAYS benefit from 'recessionary' conditions.

Make no mistake: the car industry (ex-MS, HY and Mahindra) had been recessionary from around 2013 to around april 2016, whereupon sales picked up on the back of cheap and often dodgy (e.g., to many uber and ola cab car buyers) credit all-new models from so many firms and brands, as also the boom in uber-ola cab sales, however low-margin, only to be destroyed for several months due to the notebandi shock, with margins for firms and dealers still abysmal in April 2017 for most firms, considering the losses they've had to suffer from nov to march'17 and esp the HUGE new investments in new models (tata, mahindra, ford, vw, toyota, mercedes, audi) they'd made in 2016, with some like fca also investing a lot on some new (jeep) dealerships. Not to mention the severe discounting that is underway industry-wide, also the bs3 inventory pileup.

MarutiS and Hyundai are the only winners and beneficiaries, as they have been since 2012/13: compare the sales statistics of nissan, chevy, fiat, vw, tata in 2013, 14, 15 with their late-2016 and now in April 2017 when the industry is supposedly booming again to 3m annual selling rate.

btw, FIAT was selling around 500+ till nov 2016, and has halved since then, same with Chevy.

i.e., marutiS (and Hyundai) are gobbling up incremental new-model-excitement sales AND are redistributing sales away from other firms EVEN if these last have all-new model offerings. Their completely oligopolistic near duopoly (MS at 50+% marketshare, and HY at 16+%) is exacerbating EVEN sales wise, let alone in the REAL terms that matter: margins and returns-on-investment (for them and for their dealers.)

BUT: fca (and the tata ranjangaon jv) are doing fine and maybe set fair to do better than ever. Consider this:

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com...o-maruti-tata-motors/articleshow/58491966.cms

 

Fiat sales in June
210
Lowest ever.

 

@Krunal Bhatt The current Fiat Cars - Punto & Linea have no future in India. If the Jeep gambit does not work, Fiat may have to pack their bags and leave from India.

Yes they will continue selling their engines to Tata and Maruti but that is about it.

 

^^Fiat may not leave because they have engine sales and jeep manufacturing plant.
If jeep euphoria die early then i am pretty sure dealers will permanently close the door.

 

Yes, FIAT (any fiat, even an all-new one or several) has no future in india.

Until it does: namely, post-dealership, service and sales success of the made-in-India Jeeps.

Possibly though very improbably.

However, the Jeep export+2 or 3 local affordably priced but very high quality of design+engineering+services plan they're implementing rather well currently with the Compass launch is imo very promising. Not just for exports or because the Ranjangaon plant and supply chain and the greatly expanded workforce there and at the fca r&d technical centre will inevitably be pretty busy and with high capacity utilization, given the Tata Nexon+Tata Q501 and 502 suv-s alongside the 2 or 3 export-heavy Jeeps too.

Also because they may be in the process of successfully proving that if the compact/trimmed/rationalised dealer body is happy-enough, through enough sales at, more importantly, enough margins: everything else follows sustainably.

In any case these Jeeps ARE the next-gen FIATs in almost every respect bar design/tophats.

Once the dealers and the MOPAR service etc is viably and proven-to-be-sustainable-and-profitable then: the FIAT siblings of these Jeeps (Compass, renegade and/or the '526' ARGO relative Jeep b-suv) can easily follow, due to platform, powertrain, supply chain and DEALER+service sharing with the high volume Jeeps (the highness of whose volumes hinge as much or maybe more on export demand than only Indian retail demand.)

 

Bang on the point. From my Global Pre-sales exp. I can say by this way Fiat cannot sustain beyond 2018.

It may end up selling Jeep Compass and 1 more item and the engines ... that's all.

Now at the last moment today I forced to stop considering TJET as my next car.

 

But what will be the best thing to do for FIAT buyers from around 2014 till they stop production? One of my friend had already planned to sell his less than 2 years old Linea.

 

This is THE best time to buy or not-sell-an-already-owned FIAT, since the upgraded-under-MOPAR dealer and service spares scene will be good (or better) in all notable cities through the next 5-7 years at least (i.e., the lifecycle of these first 2 made-in-India Jeeps.) FIAT service and spares for the Linea and Punto are completely assured: their availibility quickly enough, without waiting too much, was/is the only issue (due to dealers' keeping a lean inventory, due to financial strain or rather: low profitability otherwise.)

THIS waiting a few days for some spares issue will greatly reduce since the Jeep dealer+service operations will be that much more profitable/prosperous (given a imo likely enough sales success for the Jeeps.)

Remember: the FIAT service+spares business is part of the deal with the new or renwed dealerships, it is very much an important part of the business case for them. Dealerships for ALL firms including the oligopolist big baaps of the Indian market (maruti, hyundai, mahindra) rely very very heavily, disproportionately, on service+spares for their financial well-being NOT only from sales.

 

Nothing to worry. Fiat wont quit . The reviews and talk around jeep compass is very positive, and all old dealers have upgraded to jeep . The new jeep dealer at vizag ,varun motors is the most successful maruti dealer in andhra pradesh . I happend to visit the newly setup showroom at vizag and along with the compass stood a punto an urban cross and a linea. And it so happened a few fiats were booked along with the jeep. The success of jeep will surely rub on to fiat. Jeep should aggressively price the compass and maintain good after sales service.