Mumbai, May 18: Premier, the makers of the now-discontinued but still popular Premier Padmini cars which still dot the city roads, yesterday said it will raise production of its compact SUV Rio by over threefold by August.
Currently, the city-based automaker rolls out around 300 Rios a month from its Pune plant.
“We hope to begin commercial production of the Bharat Stage IV Rios with the Fiat engine by August-September. With this we will be increasing our monthly output to 1,000,” Premier chairman and managing director Maitreya Doshi told PTI here yesterday.
Earlier in the day, the company signed a deal with Fiat India to source 28,000, Euro IV-compliant diesel engines for SUV Rio, which are currently fitted on Euro II diesel and Euro III petrol engines.
“With this new engine, our focus will the metros, as our current engines cannot be sold in the metros because of the higher emission norms. Currently we sell our Rio petrol and diesel model in the non-Euro IV markets,” vice-president and automotive division head Rakesh Mehta said.
The company hopes to take in around 10,000 engines from Fiat in the first year, which will increase to 15,000 in the second year and 25,000 in the third year, if everything goes by our plan, Dohi said.
Currently, most of the Rios are sold in tier II and tier III cities.
“With this engine, the Rios will now be BS IV-compliant thereby expanding its diesel offering to 14 cities like Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Ahmedabad and Pune,” Mehta said, adding the company planned to aggressively ramp up sales and volumes in these major markets.
“Also, with this we will be increasing our dealerships from around 60 now to 100 by the end of the calendar year. The new dealerships will mostly be in the metros, he added.
As part of the deal, Fiat will supply 28,000 units of 1.3 litre multi-jet diesel engines (CRDi) to Premier during the agreement period, Doshi said, adding the company is in the final stages of technical integration and expects to receive initial deliveries of the Fiat engines by August-September.
When asked about funding plans for the capacity expansion, Doshi said, it does not need any fresh investment as the existing plant already can roll out over 1,000 units a month.
The diesel engines to be manufactured at Fiat's Ranjangaon plant will be utilised for rolling out of five-sear Rio at Premier's plant at Chinchwad in Pune. “This engine will enhance the Rio's power from 65 bhp currently to 75 bhp for the diesel version. It will also enhance fuel efficiency from 16km/ltr to 18km/ltr,” Mehta said.
With the new engine, Rio is expected to become more expensive by around Rs 45,000 than the present diesel engine on comparable models, although it has not yet been finalised. At present, the diesel variant of the Rio is available at Rs 6.36 lakh, while the petrol version is priced at Rs 6.15 lakh (both ex-showroom Pune).
