Jeep's popularity in India seems to be on an upswing with the Compass production now crossing 25,000 units. FCA's Ranjangaon plant, where the Compass is produced, crossed that milestone in February where 20,000 units were produced for the domestic market and 5,000 were exported. This facility near Pune is the only one producing the SUV for right-hand-drive markets like Australia, Japan, and the United Kingdom.

Having achieved a localisation level of 65 percent, Jeep has managed to give the Compass a competitive price in the segment. The company sold 15,245 units of the SUV since its launch in July 2017, and this figure is ahead of FCA’s total sales which include the Jeep imports as well as Fiat's which only sold a total of 756 units in the same period.

The waiting period for the Compass has dropped from four months to about one month, and our sources say that FCA is working on ramping up production capacity further.

FCA shares the Ranjangaon facility with Tata Motors. Interestingly, the plant also clocked a new milestone by rolling out a combined 5,00,000 vehicles for both manufacturers. Recently, Tata’s only compact SUV, the Nexon – also made at the same plant – received over 25,000 bookings.