'We will be coming out with the second wave of investment soon'

Roland Bouchara, MD of Stellantis India spoke with with Autocar Professional’s Ketan Thakkar, Manobhava Baruah and What Car India’s Mughda Mishra about the current status of the brands, their respective aspirations in terms of growth, future investments and plans for electrification.

Roland Bouchara, CEO and Managing Director-India, Stellantis sees India as a strong market for its brands.

World's fifth largest car maker Stellantis is not running behind big volumes in India. Instead, the multi-brand Italian-American conglomerate is focusing on profitability and using India as an export base.

Stellantis sells products from Jeep and Citroën in India and offers a fairly wide product portfolio in the country from Rs 5.5 lakh car from the brand Citroën to the Rs 1.5-crore Jeep SUV.

By leveraging India's low cost of sourcing, manufacturing and development capability, Stellantis has been able to break into profits in a market quicker than many global vehicle makers.

Excerpts from the interview

What is your view on the Indian operations in 2022 and what do you expect going ahead? India is one of the very few car markets which is growing fast after the Covid-19 slowdown. It is growing at the rate of 25 percent. We are at 3.2 million and will achieve the four million mark soon. There are not many countries around the world with a market size of four million cars annually. It is not a surprise that India is a strategic market for us. India will be one of the top five markets for our brands.

We have a plant in Ranjangaon for Jeep, engine and gearbox factory in Hosur, Karnataka. We have a plant in Tiruvallurplant (near Chennai) Citroën cars. We are exporting about three lakh gearboxes every year, now we are making the engines too. So, we have a complete set up here.

Given the structure of the market and its demographics, soon the population of India will overtake China and its growing Indian middle class presents a big opportunity.

Over 60 percent of the population in India is below 34 years old and their incomes are rising. They will try to fulfil ltheir mobility needs, as they move up the income ladder.