FCA invests $250 million in India product line-up, to launch 4 new SUVs by 2022

Italian-American automaker Fiat Chrysler Automobiles said it will invest $250 million in India to produce four new SUVs over the next couple of years.

These models will be an upgraded variant of Jeep Compass, a global first three-row SUV codenamed H6, and the next-gen Grand Cherokee and Jeep Wrangler.

The 2021 Jeep Compass, the automaker's flagship offering for India, will be unveiled on January 7 and the mid-sized three-row SUV is slated for a 2022 launch. The Grand Cherokee and Jeep Wrangler will be assembled locally at FCA's manufacturing facility in Ranjangaon in Maharashtra, which it runs in a joint venture with the Tata Group. All four products will hit the road by end-2022.

FCA's $250 million investment marked towards expanding its local product line-up is in addition to the $150 million it will be investing in a global digital hub in Hyderabad, Telangana.

Fiat had said the new digital hub will serve as a 'transformative and innovative engine' for the company and will create at least a thousand new jobs, mainly in engineering and IT, by the end of the year.

That brings FCA's investment in India to $400 million over the next couple of years, signalling a redoubled reach for India's SUV market pie.

“Our new investment of $250 million will give us a competitive edge in multiple segments with our new Jeep SUVs rolling out of Ranjangaon", FCA India Managing Director, Dr Partha Datta said in a statement, adding, “This investment is in addition to $450 million we have already committed to our Indian operations over the past five years."