And now we have the global knowledge and competence that they have built over the years working global platforms. These engineers now are also working on products for the Indian markets. We have taken the lessons from the global platforms and global engineering and are now bringing it to India as well. We have set some of things in the past and now is the time to see them fall in place."

One of the exciting launches for Fiat at the Auto Expo was the Abarth 500. Initially, of course, it will be a CBU but Fiat intends to assemble it locally at the Pune plant. "We will start localising Abarth in the 2015 time frame. The Avventura will of course be significantly localised; about 85-90 percent just like the Linea and the Punto. And it will happen before December 2014," Basavanhalli shares.

Fiat operates a fully equipped warehouse that is capable of stocking up to 6000 different parts at any given point in time. "This is one of the largest warehouses in the Asia Pacific region. We have listened to our customers. And we want to make sure that our spares are available and are affordable. We have all the spare parts available at this warehouse all the time. In addition to that, our partners are stocking the fastest moving parts," he says. The warehouse is equipped with the latest IT systems that tracks and updates dealer' spare parts requirements on a real-time basis. It therefore enables FGAIPL to deliver the necessary spare parts to metro customers within 24 hours and non metro customers within 72 hours.

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