Stellantis snubs Italy in favor of Serbia on the electric Panda?
Corriere della sera and Repubblica give different versions on the electric Panda which will be built in Serbia and no longer in Pomigliano d'Arco. All the details and controversies
The fact is this and it is yet another blow to the heart that Stellantis deals to the Italian automotive industry: the electric Panda, an iconic model for the Fiat brand, will be built in the Kragujevac plant, in Serbia and, it seems, no longer in Pomigliano d'Arco, as announced.
STELLANTIS BRINGS THE ELECTRIC PANDA TO SERBIA
We began to understand that Kragujevac, in Serbia, was destined to become an important plant for Stellantis last year, when even the ICE website , the Agency for the promotion abroad and the internationalization of Italian companies, resumed news that new equipment had just been delivered to the facilities of the Fiat Chrysler Automobiles Serbia plant in Kragujevac to support the Group's electrification.
“In the Kragujevac plant, Stellantis will install the new electric platform for the production of electric cars starting from mid-2024. The new electric car, which does not yet have a name – reads the press release taken from Ice -, will be produced in the plant from Kragujevac. The plant could also be configured to support potential additional quantities of another model, based on continued performance improvement.”
COURIER AND REPUBBLICA CRASH ON STELLANTIS IN SERBIA
At least one of those "unnamed" models from the December 2022 press release we now know which it will be: the electric Panda. Yet another sign, after Carlos Tavares decided to produce the Fiat 600e and Topolino in Poland and Morocco , that our country continues to slip out of the Group's industrial plans.
News that once again incites the Corriere della Sera which, as we have already seen in recent months , is closely following the ongoing progressive desertification decided by Tavares (it was the editorial team in via Solferino who raised the alarm of Luca Cordero of Montezemolo , according to which "Our country, in fact, no longer has an automotive industrial reality" .
“We are sailing on cloudy promises about the future of the plant located in the province of Naples, without any certainty”, notes Corsera , who also collects the testimony of the workers: “why didn't Carlos Tavares make the announcement himself? Why do we have to find out about this from the head of the Serbian government? Since 2012 the Panda has been produced in Pomigliano, we have churned out 1,950,000 of them. It will be hard to replace it. The future? We would like it to be our company that communicates this to us and not a foreign head of state", ask the blue collars.
And then ample space is left for union protests. In particular, the Fiom-Cgil statement is taken up almost entirely and without interruption: «Pomigliano cannot be touched, Stellantis and the government must know that we will do everything necessary to safeguard the site, production and employment. Let's tell workers and other unions right away that it's time to unite." The Fim Cisl requests that Stellantis communicate «urgently which car model will replace the current Panda. Currently the Pomigliano factory is in a positive situation in terms of volumes thanks to the production of the Alfa Romeo Tonale, the Dodge Hornet and the Fiat Panda which have made it possible to eliminate the layoffs on the production lines and to absorb the activity of around 1,200 workers from other Italian sites".
However, the space reserved for Stellantis' reply was limited: "Yesterday evening the company made it known that Pomigliano will continue to produce the Panda (the one with the internal combustion engine, scheduled until 2026, ed.) and therefore «if the regulatory evolution and the competitive conditions of the Pomigliano plant will allow this, it is our intention to continue its life cycle and therefore support the plant until the arrival of the new model cycle."
REPUBBLICA GIVES SPACE TO STELLANTIS SPOKESPERSON
Once again Repubblica proves to be more moderate in its tone and presentation of the facts . Stellantis reassures: "The Panda will still be produced in Pomigliano" , is highlighted right from the title in an article hastily written around midnight. This is the bolt: “The company intervenes after the Serbian prime minister's announcement on the start of production of the electric model in the eastern country. Schlein: “Let's wait to understand the company's intentions.”
Stellantis, owned by Exor which also controls Repubblica through Gedi, tells the newspaper directed by Maurizio Molinari that «Pomigliano will continue to produce the Panda – assures a spokesperson for the Italian-French group – the time is premature to make further announcements».
The Panda from Pomigliano «is not in competition with the model that will see the light in Serbia – says the spokesperson – which will be on another platform and positioned in a different way». Everything will depend on the "regulatory evolution", read postponement and review of the new Euro 7 standards, and on the "competitive conditions" of the factory.
Of course, the Roman newspaper cannot ignore the controversies, especially the trade union struggles, but compared to the Corriere it barely dedicates a paragraph to it: “Controversy resolved? Not really – we read in Repubblica . In addition to the requests for clarification from the unions, yesterday the Uilm joined Fiom and Fim-Cisl, asking for "work and employment continuity", politics went into fibrillation on the eve of the first meeting of the table between Stellantis, metalworking groups, Anfia and government to the Ministry of Business and Made in Italy.” That's all. Then the article shifts attention to the political controversy, away from Stellantis' industrial moves.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/smartcity/stellantis-snobba-litalia-a-favore-della-serbia-sulla-panda-elettrica/ on Tue, 05 Dec 2023 08:58:02 +0000.