100 units per day, instead of the targeted 500. In Kragujevac, Serbia, where Fiat produces the Grande Panda, the pace is struggling. The production lines for the new electric city car are unable to... maintain the pace targeted by Stellantis, and the number of orders that is only increasing risks generating delays, according to a journalist from ItalPassion.
The manufacturer has not yet mentioned it, but it has reportedly sent Italian workers to the site to resolve the problem and finally increase the pace. The specialist site mentions that 1000 workers are missing the call to reach the expected production level. A labor concern that could alert Stellantis, certainly not convinced of having to transport detached workers.
Employees from Melfi rather than Modena
ItalPassion had also covered in detail Stellantis' recruitment campaign to find reinforcements for its Serbian factory. At the end of March, the group published an offer to Maserati employees in Modena. A proposal that didn't necessarily please the manufacturer's teams, despite the fact that the production site was running at a slow pace due to low demand. An employee told Corriere Di Bologna that at 57, he wasn't going to leave his family for "an extra 1,000 euros.".
The Fiat Grande Panda's technical cousin, the Citroën C3, is produced at Stellantis's Slovakian plant in Trnava. While the factory had experienced difficulties in its early days, it is now operating normally. Reinforcement in Serbia is expected to come more from the Melfi plant. While waiting for the production site to welcome 7 new models (including the Jeep Compass and the electric DS 8), some of its workers have reportedly accepted Fiat's offer to go to Serbia to work on the production of the Grande Panda.
Justified popularity for the Fiat Grande Panda
Unlike the Citroën C3, the Fiat Grande Panda offers a more original and colorful design, with some new appendages and features. Among the elements that interested us the most during our test of the Fiat Grande Panda was its integrated AC charger stored in a hatch on the front. Its spaciousness is also reinforced and its shock absorption will please most people. Its autonomy will still remain limited, around 250 kilometers.
After only two weeks on the market, Fiat had recorded no fewer than 15,000 orders for the electric city car, the brand's CEO, Olivier François, proudly reported in an interview with the newspaper El Espanol last February. Unlike the rest of its range, the Grande Panda is a "global" model for Fiat, the first since the Palio in 1996.
0 Comments