Fiat’s big launch bash featured a parade of new cars, pyrotechnics and the presence of the Italian Ambassador and Fiat’s Area Director, Julian Fittipaldi (below)

TTS EUROCARS, FIAT’S local distributor, celebrated the official launch of the Italian marque earlier this month. Held at the TTS Centre in Sin Ming Drive, the launch was graced by the presence of the Italian Ambassador to Singapore, His Excellency, Dr Folco de Luca Gabrielli.

Invited guests were treated to a lion dance, a spectacularly deafening pyrotechnics display and a parade of all the Fiat models that are available locally. Miss Jeslin Teo, CEO of TTS Eurocars added, “I am confident that the revival of Fiat will be a success and that Fiat cars are here to stay.”

TTS Eurocars has committed $5 million to the revitalisation of the Fiat brand, with most of that figure invested in four brand new showrooms and aftersales support.

Also in town was Mr Julian Fittipaldi, Area Director for Fiat Auto, who flew in from Italy especially for this event. CarBuyer spoke to him to find out how Fiat is supporting TTS’ efforts to reintroduce the brand.

CarBuyer: Regarding the difficult task of reintroducing the Fiat brand into the local market after its five-year absence, in what way is the factory supporting TTS?

JF: At the moment, we are doing a new repositioning of the brand around the world, with a new brand identity, and we also have five new models coming out in the near future. Here in Asia we will be able to bring in the new models soon after we launch them in Italy and Europe.

At the end of May, we launched the Croma, in September we are launching the new Punto, then the Stilo and the all-new 500 in the beginning of next year. All these models will be available for the local market. We are therefore very motivated and we feel confident that with these new models and the new brand identity, it will be easier to relaunch Fiat here.

CarBuyer: Which is more important, product strength or promoting the brand?

JF: We present Fiat as the brand that is able to bring emotion to customers. The idea is to relaunch the marque as one that can deliver emotion. The products are important and they help to illustrate the passion that motivates us. We are a ‘smiling’ company, we are very fun and colourful brand, and we want to use our Italian styling and European character to convey this to customers.

CarBuyer: Who do you see as you your toughest competitors in the local market?

JF: All the European manufacturers. Especially those who do CBU (Completely Built Up) cars in these markets. Peugeot, Renault, and the other French manufacturers as well as the German manufacturers. We also see the Japanese brands as competitors but the pricing is different, especially the CKD (Completely Knocked Down) cars. We also have the added strength of being the only Italian carmaker in this segment.

CarBuyer: What’s next for Fiat? Will we see any collaboration between Fiat and other marques under the Fiat Group? Alfa Romeo for example?

JF: I will say ‘yes’ to that tentatively, but perhaps I’m not the best person to ask as I focus more on the commercial side! There are obvious synergies we can achieve, we can save on costs for one and if we were to collaborate with say Alfa Romeo that would be great.

But as you know Alfa is now alongside Maserati and we work more with Lancia, there is a lot of strategising at the moment and we have to see how the new Punto does in Europe, as that is our most important car, before we decide on internal synergising.

CarBuyer: What advantages does Fiat have to offer that might entice customers away from rival marques?

JF: As I said before, we are a ‘smiling’ company, and Italian style is our main strength. We offer versatile models for young people and we want to help our customers enjoy their lives.

So if you are a young guy, you will find the Punto to be the most emotional car to drive. We also want to focus on different age groups, and different demographics so we can bring emotion and style to all these people.