In an interview with Reuters earlier this week Lancia Brand Manager Olivier Francois reveals that they are aiming to keep their Italian market share steady this year, an ambitious target he admits, for two main reasons.

Olivier Francois - report from Reuters

Fiat's Lancia marque aims for 4 to 5 percent of the Italian domestic market this year, steady from last year, and has already achieved that level in February, its brand manager told Reuters on Wednesday. "We were very satisfied with February, and March seems to be in line with that," Olivier Francois told Reuters at an event to promote the up-market brand.

Lancia's market share was around 4.5 percent in 2005 and February figures were in line with that. Lancia hit 4.26 percent in January. Francois maintained the flat target was ambitious partly because Lancia has ended production of its Lybra family.

"Yes, (the target) is ambitious for two reasons. The first is that the Lybra is disappearing and the other is that we are a premium brand so we can't push volumes aggressively," he said. Lancia finds it harder to use the steep discounts commonly offered by mass-market brands to tempt buyers. Francois, who is also head of the Fiat core brand, said there were no plans to produce Lancia models abroad but it could make use of Fiat's industrial alliances for distribution.
 

"We will not produce Lancia in India. Lancia may be sold in India but not produced," he said. Fiat, aiming to cut costs in an increasingly competitive market, has struck an array of alliances in countries such as India, Turkey and Russia and has cooperation deals with France's PSA Peugeot-Citroen and Ford. Francois said the Lancia brand would look at increasing market share in France, Belgium and Spain, adding he wanted to replace the Libra "very soon."

Lancia's Ypsilon city car and the Musa, a luxury version of the Fiat Idea mini-multipurpose vehicle, have helped its sales over the last two years. Ypsilon has sold about 150,000 units since its launch in 2003. But Lancia is still behind foreign brands such as Citroen, Renault and Volkswagen in its home market.

report courtesy of Reuters