In conversation with Steve Zanlunghi, Head of Jeep brand for Asia Pacific

The SUV market in India is expanding in leaps and bounds and Jeep’s growing presence in our country has given Indian consumers a fresh new SUV option. One that is iconic as well. But the Compass is hardly the end of the Jeep story in India. In fact, the American SUV legend has plenty more waiting in the wings. Editor Sirish Chandran gets chatting with Steve Zanlunghi , head of Jeep Brand for Asia Pacific, on the company’s strategy for India and future plans for our market.

Sirish Chandran: How important is the Wrangler to the Jeep brand?

Steve Zanlunghi– For us it is utmost important, it’s everything that the Jeep brand stands for. Its DNA goes back to WWII. If you look at the family tree that’s where it started. And you can see cues from the Jeep Wrangler in almost all of our Jeeps – the seven-slot grille, the trapezoid wheel arches. For some markets it would be the volume vehicle for us and in others it would be just the icon or a halo.

“Wrangler will be a halo product in India because of the high import duties”

SC: So what would it be in India?

SZ– It would definitely be an icon or a halo because of the import duties. It won’t [be assembled in India] because the Jeep Wrangler will always be built in the US. It’ll never be built outside the US. That’s its home and that’s part of its DNA and also the brand’s DNA.

SC: Doesn’t that limit the potential for the Wrangler in India?

SZ– For the Wrangler, with the import taxes, it would but it’s not there to be a volume player in India. It’s there to be more of a halo and an icon for the brand. As you know we’ve localised our assembly there and right now we’re growing the Compass.

SC: What do you think of the progress of the Jeep brand in India?

SZ–We’re in this for the long term. It’s not just a short term play and you know we introduced the Wrangler and the Grand Cherokee initially just as halos to see and start building the brand. And now we have introduced a volume brand in the Compass which has been extremely well received and has done better than we expected, and we see that the Indian public is really accepting and embracing the Jeep brand.

SC:What does Jeep stand for?

SZ-The Jeep brand is four pillars: it stands for freedom, passion, authenticity and adventure. That’s what is built into our DNA and all of our vehicles are built on this force. I mean our vehicles don’t just look like off-roaders they actually perform. We’re there to really be an off-road brand. We were the first ones, we created it and we’ve come straight from our roots. So we stay authentic to it. Now we understand that there may be demand within the market place and the shift to SUVs where customers don’t need something that’s going to traverse the Rubicon Trail but we have other offerings on the line-up as well.

SC: What’s next for Jeep in India?

SZ– There are a lot of things. We’re studying a few projects, obviously the Compass, it’s only a year old and by product life cycle, it’s still just an infant. So what we’re looking to do is we’re looking to come with different variants of the Compass. Then we’ve got other various studies that are ongoing. You know we have the capacity in our assembly plant there and it’s been really good for us. Not just for the Indian market but it’s also become a right-hand-drive export hub as well. So, right now we’re exporting the Compass to Australia, New-Zealand, UK, South Africa and also Japan.

At the four plants where we built the Compass, India’s is the highest quality that we have.

SC: When will the new Wrangler come to India?

SZ– It will be within the first half of next year