Production of the iconic Fiat 500 in electric version at the Mirafiori plant near Turin will be suspended for a month due to low demand, carmaker Stellantis announced on Thursday.
“This measure is made necessary by the current lack of orders” linked to the “serious difficulties” encountered on the electric vehicle market in Europe “by all producers, particularly European ones”, Stellantis said in a press release.
“Stellantis is firmly committed to ensuring the continuity of all its factories and activities and is working hard to best manage and navigate this difficult transition phase,” notes the Franco-Italian-American manufacturer.
The group says it is investing 100 million euros to equip the electric Fiat 500 with a “new high-power battery” and “intensify its production”.
The manufacturer also points out that it plans to manufacture “from 2025 or 2026” a new hybrid version of the Fiat 500 at the Mirafiori site.
The announcement of the suspension of production until October 11 comes against a backdrop of controversy with the government of Giorgia Meloni, which accuses the manufacturer of relocating its production to low-cost countries, to the detriment of Italian factories.
Stellantis increased its production in Italy last year by 9.6% to nearly 752,000 vehicles and, under pressure from the government, has committed to increasing it to one million units by 2030, a threshold that has not been reached since 2017.
But after three years of growth, Stellantis’ production in Italy fell again in the first half of the year, falling 25.2% to 303,510 vehicles, according to the FIM-CISL union. Excluding commercial vehicles, the decline reached 35.9% in the first six months of the year.
The employees of Mirafiori, where the Maserati is also produced, have suffered a series of technical unemployment periods this year due to a drop in demand and the delay in the government’s launch of ecological bonuses for the purchase of electric vehicles, a scheme that only came into force in June.
bh/spi
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