C-Medium Against Corolla Fiat Expects Revival in China

Many Chinese who have been to Italy have to admit that the food they eat in Naples, where the pizza was born, is far inferior to the pizza that Pizza Hut serves in China. It is either that the toppings are too thick, or that the filling tastes too strange. At the moment, Fiat, Italy's largest automaker, needs to face the same problem - how to cater to Chinese buyers. The failure of product introduction strategies has caused them to miss the best time for the Chinese market.

On an April 19th interview in the crowded small room behind the Shanghai auto show Fiat booth, almost no one cared about the star model Fiat 500, even if it was of great significance to the company’s revival in Europe. The issues are always sharply focused on “what competitive advantage” or “what to deal with China's rapid deceleration”.

“If you can meet the increasingly demanding demands of consumers on the car, your opportunity will come.” Lorenzo Sistino, sitting across from a long bar, said he believes that his technology will be imported into China is not inferior to any competitor The voice of the executive vice president of the Fiat Group Automobile Company was not overwhelmed by the noise of the auto show outside the room.

In response to Civic or Corolla "tea, coffee, steamed bread, pizza," Zheng Xiancong, general manager of GAC Fiat, wrote on a blank page that he tried to explain that the preferences of Chinese and Italians are similar to each other. , but the culture of advocating food is precisely the common place, in addition to the family.

It seems that the joint venture experience that ended in failure with Nanjing Auto in 2007 failed to dispel the ambition of Fiat for the Chinese market. After finding a better partner, GAC, they even overturned the conservative plan to put into production the LINEA model and replaced it with a new platform developed under the C-Medium, so that they had to pay a price for delaying production for half a year.

“For us, the most important task at present is to put C-Medium into the Chinese market as soon as possible. This is the first.” Zheng Xiancong’s tone is urgent, “it has not been put in any place in the world at present. The key components are extremely advanced, from automotive performance to technology platforms."

Can they succeed this time? This was formally listed in March last year, China's youngest joint venture car manufacturers are using all their enthusiasm to look forward to the first model can be a hit. "Competing against Honda Civic or Toyota Corolla", in the competition described by GAC Fiat's executive deputy general manager Jiang Ping, did not mention Volkswagen Sagitar. In fact, Fiat focuses on the technical route and the former of the small-displacement turbocharged engine and the dual-clutch transmission. It is very similar, and this trend has already begun to prevail in China — the natural aspirating route that Japanese automakers stick to is outdated, and even the modern Kia Group, which has been relying on the rise of the replicating Toyota model, has decided to change the camp.

"The C-Medium's 1.4-litre supercharged engine is more powerful than the normal 2.0-liter engine in terms of power performance. As a small-displacement engine, its energy-saving and low fuel consumption performance is even better," Jiang Ping told reporters.

Get rid of dependence on homeland and Brazil Lorenzo Sistino is not happy when someone accuses the product of Fiat’s previously failed joint venture experience. In fact, the reaction of any Italian is no different. They believe that their own car technology and design are unique. In that boot-shaped country, Fiat Group's position is no one can challenge, including the Pope but Fiat can not be called a global company, this Turin-based car maker has been heavily dependent on the Italian and Brazilian markets, 2010 Only the two countries mentioned above accounted for as many as 66% of Fiat's overall sales. The data provided by Gasgoo Automotive Research Institute shows this. The continued downturn in the Italian car market began to make Fiat unable to turn a blind eye. In February of this year, the number of local passenger car licenses was 160,000, which was 20.5% lower than the same period of last year and was the lowest since 1996. In the world’s largest Chinese and US markets, Fiat is a loser.

By controlling Chrysler, Fiat has obtained tickets for the North American market, and another investment of 1.6 billion to 200 million euros will be used to build an auto assembly plant with an annual output of 300,000 to 350,000 vehicles in Lipetsk, Russia. Of course, this action to get rid of dependence on the traditional market can not be without China and India. In the Italian Federation of the most influential industrialists, the head of its “emerging countries” program is John Elkan, who is a Fiat. The current chairman of the group.

The above-mentioned radical plans are largely due to Malchone’s ambition and a small part of his pessimism. This Fiat Group chief who entered in 2004 with Fiat’s loss of more than US$1 billion and made it profitable after two years Executives have long been concerned that it may be difficult for a multinational automobile manufacturer to achieve profitability unless its annual sales exceed 5.5 million vehicles, or even 6 million vehicles. Malchone believes that such companies will not exceed six, and Fiat must be among them.

Confidence is greater than gold Even with Chrysler's sales, Fiat still differs from Malchone's breakeven point by more than 1 million vehicles. In the announcement of the Fiat Five-Year Plan, which targets the “Forward Road” in 2014, all subsidiaries will invest in the Chinese market as the most important chapter in the briefing. The idea of ​​a partner from Fiat China is no different. “Every company wants to be the first in the market,” said Jiang Ping, executive deputy general manager of GAC Fiat. The confidence is greater than gold.

On the 11th of last month, the Guangqi Fiat Star Sands site in Changsha, Hunan, received a salute that celebrated the closure of its office building that was started in November last year and was scheduled to open in September.

“According to the current time, we hope to be able to start production next year as planned. There will definitely be new products for everyone at the auto show.” Zheng Xiancong revealed to the Times Weekly reporter. The earthquake in Japan also shocked GAC Fiat. They decided to minimize the crisis in all supply chains. “We are now achieving localization rates of 80% or more,” said Zheng Xiancong, who has completed more than two-thirds of the procurement plan.

The repair of marketing channels has also improved significantly, with the sales of Bravo's franchise stores expanding from as low as 20 to 34, and the number will be enlarged to 100 before C-Medium launches in 2012.

The slowdown in the Chinese market is not a dangerous signal for Fiat. “Even if the growth rate slows to 10%, based on such a huge base, China is still one of the most potential countries in the global automotive market.” Sistino said. In fact, the increase in new sales by just 10% is already equivalent to Italy's total market space.