Car Majors Pushed back Launches
Posted on November 12th 2008If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
The slow down in car market is impinging on the launch schedules of the car companies. Fiat India will introduce its latest mid-sized sedan Linea in a month of December 2008 instead of October’08 because of the poor response prevailing in market. Fiat’s 2nd launch Grande Punto will also hit the market sometime next year instead of this December.
The industry is evaluating its launch schedules after taking stock of poor response sentiment in car market.
We are optimistic that the market will improve in the last quarter of this year. We have pushed back new launches as the series of government initiatives are likely to bear fruit and improve sentiment by then. So, we will launch our new cars at an appropriate time.
- Mr. Rajeev Kapoor (FIA CEO) said.
Linea will be offered in 1.3L multi-jet diesel and 1.4L FIRE petrol engine options. It will manufacture from company’s recently developed Ranjangaon plant, Maharashtra. The car will be priced in the range of Rs. 6 - 8 lakh.
Hyundai and Maruti Suzuki also have pushed back their launches beyond a festive season. Hyundai’s i20 is likely to hit the market in January 2009.
By editor in Auto India News
dreamthecar responded on 17 Nov 2008 at 4:41 am #
The global recession has pushed all most all the car manufacturers to delay the launch of new cars. The car companies are just waiting for the market to be stable. New launches will not fetch any sales with the present market situation under pressure.
Rahul,
Indian Car Advisor