Fiat Professional will give the revised 2015 Doblo Cargo its public debut at the CV Show in April. It will be the first vehicle to carry the Fiat Professional badge – all new Fiat light CVs will be badged this way in future.
The new face of the Doblo Cargo was first seen at the Hanover Show last year, featuring revised frontal treatment. The van features more torque from its 1.3 and 1.6 diesel engines, and a new Ecojet variant for both engines designed to improve fuel economy. The van will also be available with a new Gateway module for operators wanting to use telematics.
Fiat Professional posted record UK sales in 2014 with 14,927 units registered, including motorhomes and combi models, up 8% on 2013.
According to Sebastiano Fedrigo, Director, Fiat Professional UK, the company sold more vehicles than ever in the UK, and also successfully expanded its customer base, “We’ve done so with major corporate wins, such as BT Fleet, National Grid and Network Rail and also with a strong performance on retail”, he said.
“We have seen growth in every single sector. We have identified some sectors where we need to grow more, typically leasing and corporate to some extent. We still have a long way to go to reach our aspirations, but overall to sell the highest number since we started collecting data in 1970 was a pleasing result for us.”
Around 45% of Fiat Professional vans are sold through the Fiat car dealer network, “It’s slightly fewer than in the past, not because we have reduced that element”, explains Fedrigo, “But because we have grown the sales through the ‘truck’ network.” About 50% of these dealers are with the Iveco Trucks franchise and about 50% with the DAF Trucks franchise.
“This is a win-win situation for us”, he continues. “Because it has allowed us to highlight to some specific customers that we can offer servicing on Saturday morning, or extended opening hours.”
Some van customers need the level of aftersales service that has been traditionally associated with truck dealers.
“Typically we have created a structure of people that are solely tasked with fulfilling the quick requirements of some of the major corporates in terms of servicing.”
