In a quick chat with Car India, Kumar Priyesh, Brand Director, Jeep India, reveals some interesting information, including the company’s future plans for India.
Is there a particular reason why you are limiting the Wrangler in India to the two-litre turbo petrol engine?
We are not limiting ourselves to a particular thing, I would say. Right now, we have launched the 2.0-litre but, yes, we are continuously looking into the market development, looking into the customer profiles and customer expectations. You will see a lot of things happening going forward on which I cannot comment right now, whether we will be looking at some different powertrain or engine or whatever. Yes, we are looking at all the possible options; whether to bring it to India or not depends on a lot of factors. As I mentioned, market and customers and profiles and all those things.
Jeep are clear about how they are going to go forward in terms of electrification and they have a timeline in place. Over here, we do not even have a hybrid yet. So, do you have a target in mind for Jeep India to move towards hybrids or full electrification?
We are quite serious about getting electric vehicles to India. Fully electric, most likely. It is being worked on. We will communicate at the right time. If you also look at the market development, every third month there is something new, some new government policy which comes up. So, we also need to be aligned to those policies and guidelines. A lot of things need to be brought together on one design table to finally arrive at which product, what type, which segment.
In your perspective, do you see customers using the full capability of the Wrangler? Or would you say it’s getting cocooned as a lifestyle thing?
There are many features which we have added, which add to the on-road experience as well. We have ADAS, six airbags, better seats, the largest infotainment screen, and noise cancellation. We are looking at a combination of not only off-roading, for which Wrangler is known, but also how it can be used for an on-road experience as well. That is something which will give us additional mileage in this market. It is the only one car which will give you that experience off road and equally good experience on road as well.
What would you like to tell our readers?
Anything that we do is going to be focused on the customers. That is already there but we will take it to the next level. We are looking at getting closer to the customers. The core pillars that we will be working on are network and manpower. We will also be focused on corporate sales because the corporates are a big potential for us. We will focus on improving the customer experience through improved services. It is going to be a multi-pronged approach.
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