The leading Italian car maker Fiat is likely to supply diesel engines to Maruti Suzuki from its Ranjangaon plant near Pune. At present, Maruti Suzuki has a licensing pact with the Italian car maker Fiat to produce diesel engine units for Maruti cars in India at its Manesar plant. Maruti uses the Fiat diesel engines in a number of its mass segment cars including Maruti Swift, Ritz and SX4.
As per recent European media reports, Fiat is keen on enhancing its engine manufacturing capacity to 400,000 units. The company is likely to utilize its Tata Motors joint venture Ranjangaon facility for the purpose. However, the company hasn’t made any official statement in this regard.
Before this, Fiat India had indicated that it plans to assemble 1.6L and 1.9L diesel engines at Ranjangaon facility. Despite having expertise in the manufacturing of diesel engines, the company hasn’t been able to perform in the country as per expectations. Both of its competitive cars hatchback Punto and sedan Linea have been registering moderate sales figures due to its weak sales and service network in the country. Fiat India currently sells its cars in India in a 50:50 partnership with Tata Motors.
