MILAN (Reuters) -Stellantis will again halt auto production at its historic Italian Mirafiori plant from Dec. 2 to Jan. 5 due to continuing poor sales for the electric Fiat 500 city car made there, the automaker said on Wednesday.
Reuters had reported earlier this month that trade unions were expecting another production stoppage at the factory, based in Fiat’s hometown of Turin in north-west Italy, for the entire month of December.
“The reason is the continuing uncertainty in sales of electric cars in several European markets, which account for 97% of Mirafiori’s production, and luxury cars in some non-European countries such as China and the United States”, Stellantis said in a statement.
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The Franco-Italian automaker said it told unions that assembly operations would be halted during Dec. 2-Dec. 17, adding to a previously agreed closure of the plant for end-year holidays during Dec. 18-Jan. 5.
Car assembly operations at Mirafiori, which also produces two low-volume Maserati sports cars, restarted in November after multiple stoppages this year due to soft market demand, in particular for EVs.
(Reporting by Gianluca Semeraro and Giulio Piovaccari, editing by Alvise Armellini and Elaine Hardcastle)
