The Jamboree Starts In India

Jeep has taken the wraps off the India-spec Compass. Rahul Ghosh visited the Ranjangaon facility to experience the same first hand.

Just a few months back, Jeep made its official entry into India. The two SUVs it offered included the Jeep Grand Cherokee and the Jeep Wrangler. However both models come into the country via the CBU route and this in turn makes them frightfully expensive. So for a company aspiring for volumes, it is quite obvious that the CBU route won’t work. It has to be made in India and that is exactly what the company has planned for its forthcoming offering, the Jeep Compass.

The Jeep Compass then is a rather important product for the brand here in India. The SUV will be made at Fiat India’s Ranjangaon facility on the outskirts of Pune. The company has made an investment of 280 million US Dollars to ensure that this is a world class manufacturing hub for the Jeep Compass. Yes, the Ranjangaon facility will serve as a mother plant for the Jeep Compass and ‘Made-in-India’ Compass will be exported to major right-hand drive markets including UK, Australia and Japan. Now let’s move on to the SUV in question.