Ratan Tata, Tata Group CEO, said on Tuesday that the joint venture between Italian car maker Fiat and Tata Motors has not been performing as per expectations. Mr. Tata said that the JV with Fiat is not as active as planned before. According to him, the partnership with Fiat needs to be critically examined for optimizing the potential of this JV.
In an interview given to market research firm JD Power on the Indian automobile industry, Mr. Tata said “I have to admit that so far, the venture with Fiat has not been as active as we had thought." He said that the Italian car maker needs to roll-out new car models in the country.
It is to be mentioned here that Fiat India currently sells only two competitive car models in the country including hatchback Fiat Punto and sedan Fiat Linea. Despite having these two competitive car models in its India portfolio, the company has been registering moderate sales figures in the Indian market.
Tata added, “I think that Fiat has to launch more models into the market to keep dealers interested. It also has to look at its cost structure in terms of parts and components. So the joint venture needs to be looked at quite critically and until that happens, it's not going to be optimized."
