Peugeot Another Has-Been In India?

[k_nitin_r 8]

Just about every firm finds it easier to stick to a current supplier than to change to another supplier. That makes me wonder - about a decade ago, Peugeot was the preferred supplier of diesel engine among automotive manufacturers in India. If they had played their cards right and invested enough in refreshing their diesel engine, they would have their diesel engine in roughly half of all the diesel-engine powered cars in India today.However, what happened is that the diesel engine being offered by Peugeot was under-powered and automobile manufacturers looked for alternatives. Hyundai picked Detroit Diesel as its supplier of diesel engines whereas Tata Motors and Maruti-Suzuki decided to switch to Fiat. Right now, about a half of all diesel-powered cars on Indian roads are powered by Fiat engines (either manufactured under license from Fiat or sourced from Fiat). The 1.4L Fiat engine is used by Maruti-Suzuki in all of its diesel vehicles from the Swift and Ritz hatchbacks to the Ertiga MUV and the SX4 sedan. Considering that Maruti-Suzuki has the largest share in the Indian automobile market, that's a whole lot of sales/royalty for Fiat right there. Add to it the sales of Tata, which is among the top 5, if not the top 3, and you right away have a figure that puts Fiat technology under the hood of over half of all Indian diesel cars on the road today.We don't know if Peugeot's plans to re-enter the Indian market with its own vehicles will materialize but at this point, Peugeot lost its place and is nowhere to be seen, easily displaced by Fiat in under a decade.