Aditya Jairaj, Deputy Managing Director and Head Jeep Brand Operations, Stellantis India Private Ltd
| Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
The Jeep brand which directly entered the Indian market in 2016 followed by the introduction of “Made in India” Jeep Compass the next year, has embarked on the next phase of growth to make a lasting impact in the country.
The American iconic SUV brand which is now part of Stellantis, has chalked out a strategy to double sales volume to about 1,200 units a month by the next quarter and increase local sourcing of components to over 90% from about 70% now, to make products affordable, a top executive said.
“Jeep is here to stay. One thing we are focusing is the need to think globally and act locally. So, localisation is a key element of this. We are planning upto 90% localisation in India,” said Aditya Jairaj, Deputy Managing Director and Head Jeep Brand Operations, Stellantis India Private Ltd in an interview.
Mr Jairaj was recently recruited by the Stellantis from Nissan in the US where he was global head of electrification, to drive growth.
The company which is selling on an average of 500 to 600 units of Jeep in the last six months, has made Jeep Compass automatic affordable by Rs 6 lakh to increase its presence in the compact SUV segment by four times.
The Jeep Meridian will shortly come with a new variant called Meridian Overland to appeal its ‘differentiated customers’.
Similarly plans are afloat to increase the sales of Jeep Wrangler priced upwards of Rs 60 lakh and Jeep Grand Cherokee priced at Rs 80.5 lakh through localisation and by creating awareness about the brand and the products available in the market.
“Here in India we have four name plates [4 products namely Compass, Meridian, Wrangler and Grand Cherokee] all getting manufactured here. No other country except North America has 4 name plates. Building in India and localising in India is the strategy for growth,” Mr Jairaj said.
He said Jeep Wrangler which is doing 600 units a year will also see increase in sales volume.
“We will maximise the opportunity that Wrangler presents. There is opportunity for all the nameplates and we will work on variants. Very soon we will share plans for our platform strategy,” he added.
Stating that the Jeep business is profitable for the company, Mr Jairaj said more exports markets are being explored to increase the production volume.
“Currently we are exporting to 17 countries and looking at expanding,” he said.
