MUMBAI, December 20: Italian carmaker, Fiat Spa plans to produce and sell around 25-30,000 of its Uno model cars in India in 1998, according to a Fiat official.

"In 1998, we will see a gradual increase in production rate. We intend to manufacture and sell around 25,000-30,000 next year and also to reach 40,000 in 1999," president and chief executive officer of Fiat, Roberto Testore told a news conference.

The Uno cars are currently made by Premier Automobiles at its Kurla plant in north-east Mumbai, under a technical collaboration with Fiat. But PAL is currently in the process of spinning off the Kurla unit to a joint venture company in which Fiat's wholly-owned subsidiary, Fiat India, will have a 51 percent holding with PAL having the rest.

PAL shareholders approved the transfer of the Kurla unit to the new firm in November. "What we are doing in Kurla for the Uno manufacturing operations is to make it possible that the operations run at the volumes that we have foreseen in our plan," said Testore. These in a normal year, are around 40,000 cars, he said.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.