TURIN. The Fiat 500, an icon of Made in Italy, turns 65. In the first half of 2022, the New 500 is third in Europe in the electric market, number one in Germany and Italy and on the podium in France and Spain. In just two years it has been chosen by over 100,000 customers and has won 30 international awards. Today it is sold in 38 countries in four geographic areas, Europe, Latin America, the Middle East and Japan. “A myth” calls it the National Automobile Museum of Turin which showcases six beautiful specimens of the members of the Fiat 500 Club Italia, while the company launches two new TV commercials, Evergreen and The Stick, starring the green ambassador Leonardo Di Caprio. The growth in volumes of the Nuova 500 gives a boost to the production of Mirafiori in a difficult year for the Italian factories of Stellantis due to the stops due to the lack of semiconductors.
According to data from the Fim Cisl in the first half of the year between cars and vans the company produced 48,760 units, 13.7% less than 2021 and 22.8% less than 2019. 2022 is expected in the light of this trend, and things are unlikely to change, such as the fifth consecutive year of decline in production with a loss of between 200,000 and 220,000 cars, “as if an entire large plant of the group stopped for a year” explained the national secretary Ferdinando Uliano. The heaviest situations are found in Melfi (-17%) and Sevel (-37.2%), the factories that have increasingly contributed to the overall growth in volumes, while production started last month, even in the hybrid versions. , the Grecale SUV in Cassino and the Alfa Romeo Tonale SUV in Pomigliano d’Arco. The next launches will concern the two Maserati Gran Turismo and Gran Cabrio which will be produced in the Turin Polo in the last quarter of 2022.
The Fim asks the company “for a meeting in September on the implementation of the plan, with a specific passage in the ministerial seat” to secure factories, institutions and employment. In Turin, Mayor Stefano Lo Russo announces that, before the summer, he will see the company with the governor of Piedmont Alberto Cirio to discuss the future of Mirafiori. «It is an absolutely strategic dossier for Turin not only in terms of urban space, but above all because part of the new automotive technological chain will be able to settle there» he explains.