Car makers are looking to increase prices on the 1st of April. Fiat wants to do something different. It will wait and watch. Based on the results of other car makers in the country, Fiat will take the next step. Car manufacturers are increasing prices because of the stringent BS IV emission norms which will be implemented in 13 cities. The engines are being upgraded to meet the norms, and so, the car prices will increase. But, Fiat prefers to wait and watch.

It has been a good year for Fiat. The company will be closing the fiscal year with 24,000 units. The Punto entered during the middle of the financial year and has been doing extremely well. Fiat has great plans for the coming year too. It plans to sell 48,000 units including the Punto and Linea. By June this year, the company would launch the Linea Turbo Jet with the 1.4 turbo-charged gasoline engine.

The other launch from Fiat would be the 90 bhp version of the Punto. It is also working on the Punto’s CNG version and may roll it out by the end of this fiscal year. This version will carry a gasoline-CNG engine that automatically shifts between using liquid fuel and compressed natural gas depending on requirement.

There are greater plans. With inputs from Tata Motors, a new compact car specifically for the Indian market is being developed. The unveiling would take around two years though. Fiat has always been producing small cars and the 50:50 joint venture with Tata may also prove successful. Any guesses about the car’s price? Well, it is likely to be priced in the Rs 3-3.5 lakh range.

Fiat wants to make no compromise on quality. Features like safety, storage, emission control, entertainment and high performance may be borrowed from the Fiat 500 which is sold as a completely built unit in India. With a price-tag of nearly Rs 15 lakh the two-door Fiat 500 has sold 64 units since its launch in 2008. This new small car, coming out in 2012, will be produced at the company’s Ranjangaon plant.

The plant has a capacity of 160,000 cars and 350,000 engines, besides 300,000 parts and accessories. As of now, the facility makes the Palio Stile 1.1, 1.6 models, Linea and the Grande Punto. The facility also manufactures Fiat’s booming 1.3 litre Multijet Diesel Engines and 1.2 and 1.4 litre Fire Gasoline engines. The plant will also produce Tata passenger and next generation cars.

The 1.2 litre Grande Punto has been priced at a range of Rs 4.57 lakh to Rs 4.87 lakh which is pretty decent. The idea is to offer more feature at a lower price. Position-wise, it wants to move higher in the B plus segment of cars. Fiat wants to fight it out with competitors like the Hyundai i20, Suzuki Swift and VW Polo. The current version of the Punto itself does monthly numbers of around 1,500 units. So naturally, the new variants could help numbers get closer to the 2,500-unit mark, won’t it?

By this time next year, Fiat wants to roll out over 60,000 cars from the Ranjangaon plant. If the new small car is launched by the end of next year, it will help a lot in achieving this target. The Fiat 1.2 Fire Dynamic and Fiat Fire Emotion have just been launched in the hatchback segment in Chandigarh. Fial, which currently has 103 Tata-Fial dealers in India, is looking to ramp up to 124 dealers by June this year. As for the Ranjangaon facility, Fiat plans to use it as a key global car hub eventually.