According to reports coming out of Fiat the first examples of its next-generation Panda city car will roll off the production line in Italy this November. The third generation of the Panda is preparing to make its world debut at the Frankfurt Motor Show in mid-September.
“We are on track in refurbishing Pomigliano, which will become a truly state-of-the-art plant when it begins production in November,” Fiat Group chief manufacturing officer Stefan Ketter said recently.
Originally the new Panda was to be built in the Tychy factory in Poland but last year Fiat Group CEO Sergio Marchionne announced the change. As part of the company’s “Fabbrica Italia” (Italian factory) plan, Panda production was moved to Italy to help boost Fiat productivity from around 650,000 units in 2010 to approximately 1.4 million cars in 2014.
Fiat has invested around €800 million to build the new Panda in Pomigliano. It’s a huge investment for Fiat considering the Italian factory in 2010 only produced around 30,000 units of the Alfa Romeo 159 sedan and sports wagon, plus the final examples of the 147 hatchback and GT sports coupe.
By comparison the Tychy factory in Poland builds the current Fiat Panda and 500, as well as the Ford Ka city cars, and is currently Fiat’s largest and most efficient plant in Europe producing more than 533,000 cars in 2010.
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I believe that this platform would work very well in the U.S. There are many people that would welcome the 4wd and small diesel with 40+MPG. Mr. Marchionne, there is a very large pool of potential customers that want this type of multitasking vehicle. Look at the acceptance of the MINI variants. Marketing people from Europe quite often go astray because of their penchant to believe that the vast majority of Americans want luxury V8 hogs. Toyota created Scion to attract the 20 somethings and wound up attracting almost as many of the 50+ population as they did the youth. This country is more than ready for real efficiency and utility.