Fiat's small car to arrive in 2011

India in a year’s time for extensive road trials will witness the arrival of the prototypes of the first ever made-for-India car from Italian auto giant Fiat SpA. The results and feedback from the trials will lead to the final round of tweaking before Fiat India Automobiles Ltd begins manufacturing the small car at its Ranjangaon facility.

Fiat India president and CEO Rajeev Kapoor said the small car which was set to be positioned between the A and B segments was already off the drawing board. Rajeev Kapoor also said, The small car - conceived for the Indian market - has been designed at Fiat’s legendary design studio in Turin. There are several steps between the drawing board to actual production-grade vehicles . The car will definitely be launched in 2011.

According to the sources a clay model had already been prepared and prototypes were on the way. The engine, with a 700-1 ,000 cc capacity, has also been designed and is currently being tested in India to make suitable changes to adapt to the country’s driving conditions . Roberto Dalmasso, manager at the engineering centre of Fiat Powertrain Technologies said, We are adapting the engine to Indian specifications to ensure that it delivers optimum power and mileage.  Volkswagen Beetle and Volkswagen Polo upcoming new cars will be launched in India soon.