Fiat’s main release in 2022, the Fastback arrives at the brand’s best moment in the last years. The new SUV is the cherry on the cake, the conclusion of a cycle that started in 2016 that resulted in Fiat’s return to protagonism in the market and its image repositioning.

In that year, the Italian brand’s share had shrunk to 13%, the lower level since the 1990s, a period when Fiat was still behind the “Great Four”, with Volkswagen, General Motors and Ford.

After leading sales without interruption for more than a decade up to 2015 and a sudden fall beginning the following year, the brand recovered the ranking lead only in 2021 and, with a 22% share from January through August and 267 thousand sales – 93 thousand more than GM, second-placed – granted the position at least for this year.

fiat fastback

This turnaround implied various moves to, more than recover, reposition the brand’s image, historically linked to entry vehicles that no longer met the consumers’ demands or could not face the main competitors.

Route correction

“When you are living a good moment, the phone doesn’t stop ringing. And not even my friends called me at that time”, says Hernander Zola, Fiat South America vice-president, hired in 2017 to command the commercial and marketing strategy for the new projects already defined, aiming to change Fiat’s name public perception.

Besides the reformulation of the product portfolio, which started with the launch of the Toro in 2016 and in sequence with the Argo (2018), the mission included changes on various fronts, beginning by restructuring the dealer network and the creation of a new visual communication standard for the more than 500 stores.

According to Zola, many of them were outdated, with old equipment and furniture, and low or no digitalization at all. And the worst: for many of the 260 partner groups, there was a suspicion that Fiat could repeat Ford’s decision to leave the country.

Herlander Zola

This climate, commercial conflicts and low sales took to at least four dealers’ legal suits against Stellantis, an impasse solved only three months ago, with the withdrawal of the lawsuits after the visible inversion of the curve.

There was no reason to maintain the legal dispute after the excellent commercial results in 2021, the ascension of products to the lead in their categories, the entrance into important segments such as SUVs and the perspective of unprecedented releases, such as the Fastback.

“My phone now does not stop to ring”, compares Zola, who now has 220 groups in the net for the same five hundred sales points and tells he is refusing to open new stores, no matter admitting the need for some readjust in the territorial coverage, closing some and opening other dealerships in other places.

Well above the market

Fiat and its dealers did, in fact, achieve what they wanted: to grow in absolute sales and almost double the share from 2019 up to now. And, of course, they celebrate the profitability improvement.

Zola’s smile is even larger when the theme is the brand’s average ticket. It reached the R$ 110 thousand level, 60% more than just three years ago when entry versions were still dominant in the sales mix. The growth was well over the market average of about 40% in the same period.

For this outstanding advance – and more sales – contributed better-equipped versions and, naturally, higher prices. A striking example is the double-cabin Strada, responsible for more than half of the pickup’s new generation, which became Brazil’s best-selling vehicle in 2021 and 2022.

And also, the Pulse, launched in October last year, is beginning to weigh favorably in 2022. It is the first brand representative among the SUVs, the segment responsible for one-third of passenger car sales in Brazil.

Therefore, Fiat recovered the lead in 2021, even with products including just 70% of car sales. “We had to postpone Pulse’s release for about six months due to components shortage”, tells Zola, who also admits the Stellantis’ plant in Betim, MG, still has unfinished products in its yards.

The Fastback release was also postponed for the same reason. According to the manufacturer’s initial schedule, the SUV coupe should be in the dealers since the beginning of the year, which would help to increase the brand’s average ticket even more.

“But it shall grow about 15% with the Fastback”, bets the Fiat director, confirming for this year the arrival of the Pulse Abarth and the new light commercial Ducato, two products on top of the lineup.

Photograph: Fiat

George Guimarães
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