Electric car market

Stellantis: 500 Bev production stop at Mirafiori until 1 November

The company reiterates that 'at the Mirafiori coachworks, thanks to an investment of EUR 100 million, production of the Fiat 500e will soon be enhanced with a new high-power battery, integrating new technologies to make it more accessible and improve the customer experience'.

1 October 2024

La presentazione dei primi robot della nuova linea di produzione nello stabilimento di Mirafiori.Torino, 11 luglio 2019. ANSA/ ALESSANDRO DI MARCO

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Stop production of Fiat 500 bev until 4 November, Mirafiori extends stop for a month. The communication to the unions by Stellantis arrived in the morning. "In fact, the lack of orders linked to the trend of the electric market in Europe which is deeply in difficulty persists, despite the 500e in the first 8 months of the year representing 40% of sales in the EV segment of city cars (Segment A) in Europe," the Group wrote in a note.

Closely followed is the worried comment from the trade unions. "The company today has not clarified whether or not the current forecasts will allow production for the entire month of November, in this condition uncertainty reigns supreme. The level of precariousness we are reaching is unacceptable, the automotive system thus risks collapse,' Fim wrote in a note. 'It is more necessary than ever for the Stellantis management to take note of the situation, dissolve the current hesitations, and proceed towards a programmatic agreement at institutional level,' add the CISL metalworkers.

'With the further stop at Mirafiori, the social hold is at risk. The situation in Turin is more and more worrying, cash flow increases and workers' wages decrease, putting the social hold at risk,' underlines Luigi Paone, secretary general of the Uilm of Turin.

The shutdown initially planned until 13 October 2024 will therefore last until 3 November, with solidarity contracts in place and assembly line workers on forced rest. The measure affects both production lines, Fiat 500Bev and Maserati.

The company, for its part, assures that it is 'working with determination to ensure the continuity of all its plants and activities. We reiterate that at the Mirafiori coachworks, thanks to an investment of 100 million euros, production of the Fiat 500e will soon be stepped up with a new high-powered battery, integrating new technologies to make it more accessible and improve the customer experience, but at the beginning of 2026 production of the New 500 Hybrid, which will be built on the basis of the current electric 500, will also be launched'.

Tavares in Commission

Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares will be heard at a hearing in the Productive Activities, Trade and Tourism Commission of the Chamber of Deputies on 11 October, while on the 18th a united strike and demonstration called by the metalworkers' unions, Fim, Fiom and Uilm, in support of the automotive sector is scheduled.

'To exclude Italian workers from listening to Parliament is very serious,' says Fiom national secretary Michele De Parla. "Fim-Fiom-Uilm have been asking for a long time for a confrontation with the institutions, starting from Palazzo Chigi, in order to face a situation that is becoming more and more dramatic, given that even today Stellantis has announced that it is still being laid off. It is unbelievable that the Italian Parliament does not feel the duty to listen to the automotive workers who will go on strike all over Italy on 18 October and demonstrate in Rome to re-launch the entire sector, including components,' adds De Palma.

"Stellantis' contribution and desire for dialogue and confrontation is constant. Starting with the relationship with the institutions: from the Ministry for Enterprise and Made in Italy, led by Minister Adolfo Urso, to the Parliament,' writes Stellantis in a note, emphasising that Tavares' participation is to be seen 'in this spirit of collaboration, following discussions with the President of the Commission, Alberto Luigi Gusmeroli'.

The CEO will therefore be able to 'offer the most exhaustive picture of the group's automotive production in Italy, the subject of the hearing'. The complex international and European conjuncture in which the automotive sector finds itself, adds the company, 'requires rapid answers, which are also the result of the dialogue between all the entities in the sector involved'.

Mirafiori Automotive Park 2030 and production

As for the Mirafiori pole, the industrial complex is undergoing 'a major transformation, with the aim of making it a true global centre of innovation and development, a crucial choice for winning the challenge of the transition to sustainable mobility to which we are called'. At the heart of the Mirafiori Automotive Park 2030 project, the site will house the production of electrified dual-clutch transmissions (eDCT), the Circular Economy Plant and the Battery Technology Centre, with the GrEEn Campus coming later.

As a counterbalance to the 'new' vocations of Mirafiori, however, there is a car production - in addition to the Fiat 500 bev also the two Maserati Gran Turismo and Gran Cabrio models - reduced to a trickle. The latest survey for the Group's Turin site, carried out by Fim, speaks in total of ... cars produced in the first half of the year.