Italian automaker Stellantis NV STLA will reportedly halt the production of its electric Fiat 500 for four weeks starting Friday at the Mirafiori factory in Turin due to a lack of demand in the European market.
What Happened: "The measure is necessary due to the current lack of orders linked to the profound difficulties experienced in the European electric [car] market by all producers, particularly the European ones,” the company told The Guardian. The company added that it is working “hard” to manage the transition.
The company will also reportedly invest 100 million euros into the Mirafiori plant to adopt a higher-performance battery and produce a hybrid version of the electric 500 model between 2025 and 2026.
Why It Matters: The 500e is a small electric car from Stellantis’ Fiat brand. It starts at $32,500 in the U.S. and at about 25,000 euros currently in Italy.
In the first half of 2024, 660,200 units of Fiat vehicles were sold, marking an increase of 2.2% from last year.
Europe is the brand’s key market where it had 95,779 registrations in the period.
However, the broader European EV market has been facing a slump for a while now as dwindling incentives and higher vehicle prices, combined with increasing competition from Chinese companies, pour cold water over the block’s climate goals.
In reaction to the growing Chinese threat, the EU introduced tariffs on China-made EVs while carving out a lower rate for Elon Musk’s Tesla Inc. China termed these tariffs as “unfair.”
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Photo courtesy: Stellantis
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