Jeep To Expand Range To Five Suvs By 2020

Smaller SUVs including all -new, made-for-India sub-4-metre model in the works.

- Hormazd Sorabjee

Jeep’s return to India after over 20-year hiatus, with the launch of the Grand Cherokee and Wrangler, didn’t start off on the right foot. Full customs duties on both these imported models gave sticker shock to all those who had queued up for the American icons. The response, or rather the lack of it, gave a shock to Fiat-Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) as well. And that was a good thing.

Stung by how price sensitive this market is, FCA is doing everything to ensure that it is as cost competitive as possible with the Compass, on which FCA’s future in India hinges. The Compass is a make or break model for it and, hence, a very aggressive pricing is planned to make it a success.

FCA is relying on huge economies of scale to keep costs down. The company has an ambitious target of producing 47,000 Compasses in the first full year of production, of which around 25,000 will be exported to right-hand-drive markets around the world and the balance will be for domestic sales.