TURIN, Italy — Italian automaker Fiat may shift production of its Fiat Panda from the Polish plant in the southern city of Tychy — the largest Fiat plant in Europe — to the Italian city of Naples, according to Polish media reports. The move reportedly would be triggered by the Italian government's interest in boosting domestic car production from 600,000 to 900,000 vehicles a year.
This year Fiat plans to produce 600,000 cars in its Tychy plant. The current output of the huge Polish plant equals that of five Fiat factories in Italy. In July, the Tychy plant produced the 1,500,000th Panda built there since the popular model went into production there in 2003.
Fiat first announced its plans for increasing domestic production in June, but on December 21, Fiat chief Sergio Marchionne will present them to Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. The plan includes moving 270,000 units of Panda production to Pomigliano, near Naples.
Concurrently, Pomigliano would wind down output of current Alfa Romeo models built there.
As part of a restructuring program, Fiat plans also to close its plant at Termini Imerese in Sicily in 2011 and transfer out production of its Ypsilon.
Similar to programs in Germany and France, Italy has supported car sales this year with tax breaks to encourage people to buy smaller, eco-friendly cars, but the breaks end with the new year.
Inside Line says: Fiat brings it all back home. — Evgeniy Vorotnikov, Correspondent
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mrw356 says:
08:34 AM, 12/20/2009
What a mess this sounds like. They want to boost production in Italy but they're closing a factory in Sicily. Then they're going to build the same cars they now build in Poland in Italy instead. At least they aren't moving everything to China, yet.