Fiat Reaches High Sales with Chrysler's Freemont

After collecting 15,700 dealer orders for the Freemont, which was launched last month Fiat S.p.A has asked Chrysler Group to increase production of the Freemont large minivan after European sales grew better than expected. The manufacturer expected to sell 13,000 Freemonts this year but it already collected 15,700 orders.

Regarding the sales in Europe the manufacturer has planned to sell 33,000 Freemonts in 2012, which is also the first full year of sales in Europe. Furthermore, Fiat was promised 3,000 Freemonts a month from Toluca based Chrysler facility.

In order to face the higher-than-planned European request, Chrysler boosted Freemont production by 4,067 units meaning an increase of more than a third from its total production. They were able to “pull the stunt” by working overtime.

Chrysler expects to deliver Fiat 4,000 Freemonts every month without adding the cost of overtime. Unlike the U.S. version of the minivan, the EU version has a different styling, also its handling and suspension settings have been tweaked, and it is powered by Fiat’s MultiJet 2 diesel engine which Dodge does not offer.

Fiat gained terrain for the Freemont by being aggressive with its pricing. The minivan starts at 24,900 euros in Italy, meaning 5,600euros, or18% percent below the starting price of Fiat Ulysse which was the predecessor of Freemont. The Italian manufacturer said that 80% of orders for the Freemont have been placed in Italy and 80% of customers were new to Fiat as related by autonews.com