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Fiat India flagged off a drive called Fiat Diesel Drives India today. Fiat Diesel Drives India will be taking Fiat’s four Multijet diesel offerings - the Linea, Grande Punto, Palio and Fiat 500 through testing Indian terrains over a period of a month and a half. This one-of-a-kind journey will traverse through diverse terrains within 16 states in India, clocking over 10,000 kilometres in total.

The drive has been aimed at generating awareness about Fiat’s rich history in connection with diesel technology as well as their longstanding success in rolling out endurance driven, yet stylish and classy automobiles. The drive will involve auto journalists from India’s top auto magazines, namely, Zigwheels, Car India, Overdrive, Auto India, BS Motoring, Autocar India, AutoBild, Top Gear, Auto Exchange, Automotive Product Finder and a special team of auto experts. In addition to this, the drive will also involve electronic channels like ET Now, NDTV 24X7, CNBC TV 18, NDTV India, Zee Business, UTVi, Aaj Tak, IBN7, Times Now, online portals such as Carwale.com, teambhp.com and publications such as New Indian Express. Through the course of the drive, these esteemed experts will take Fiat’s diesel engines to the extreme by taking the four cars through a stern test of power, performance and engine finesse. With this drive, Fiat, the inventor and pioneer of the high tech Multijet diesel engines, aims to stamp its authority on the diesel scenario in India as well as create further awareness about their engine’s presence in majority of the cars in India.

Speaking at the flag off, Mr. Rajeev Kapoor, President & CEO, FIAL, said, “Fiat’s diesel inventions and technology constitute a landmark position in global automobile history. Our state of the art 1.3 Multijet engines have revolutionized the diesel movement and achieved unparalleled success abroad. The engines have always performed admirably and with excellent finesse in all kinds of diverse climates and terrains across the world. Fiat’s success story in India has also been somewhat similar. In India, though the dynamic climate and unpredictable terrains in particular has been a challenging test for our engines, we have overcome the test with flying colours. The ‘Fiat Diesel Drives India’ drive is Fiat’s way of showing that our engines have passed the Great Indian test and are at the highest level of competency and reliability as technology today can provide.”

Through the extensive drive, Fiat will also look to reinforce the presence of their strong and ever growing network across India. Today, the Tata-Fiat network constitutes 99 dealerships and 6 point of sales spanning across 77 cities in the country. All these dealerships have a separate identity for Fiat and offer an international ownership experience for customers. ‘Fiat Diesel Drives India’ promises to be an exhilarating and novel drive that experiences India and all its cultural flavours.

In India, the Multijet engine is manufactured at Fiat’s Ranjangaon facility. The engines are assembled on state of the art assembly lines which have a high level of automation for all critical operations to guarantee world class quality. Testing of the engines and transmissions is carried out on Cold Test benches which, besides performing in depth checks are also environmentally friendly. Machining of critical components like cylinder block, crankshaft, cylinder head, cam carrier, transmission shafts and gears is done on the latest CNC machines with a very high degree of accuracy and automation. Sophisticated inspection equipment ensures that the quality of the components is of the highest level.

Fiat India Automobiles Limited (FIAL) is a 50-50 Industrial Joint Venture between Fiat Group Automobiles S. p. A., (Fiat) and Tata Motors Limited (Tata) originally incorporated on January 02, 1997. The company employs about 2775 blue & white collar employees and is located at Ranjangaon in the Pune District of Maharashtra. The definitive agreement of the Joint Venture was signed in October 11, 2007. The board of directors for this company comprises of five nominees each from Fiat and Tata. The state-of-the-art facility at Ranjangaon, which is owned by FIAL, a joint venture company, is capable of producing 200,000 cars and 300,000 engines, besides 300,000 parts & accessories. Currently manufacturing the Palio Stile 1.1, 1.6 models, Linea and now the Grande Punto. The facility also manufactures Fiat’s successful 1.3 litre Multijet diesel engines and 1.2 & 1.4 litre Fire gasoline engine. Apart from Fiat cars, the facility will also produce Tata passenger and next generation cars with investment exceeding 650 million euros. The plant provides direct and indirect employment to more than 4,000 people.