Fiat terminates production of Panda in Poland

Fiat Panda: photo - wikipedia

The car had been the most popular model of the factory in Tychy, southern Poland, with some 2.15 million produced since 2003.

“In spite of the fact that the Panda Classic has been produced here for nine years, the company has decided in this case to end production by the end of the year,” confirmed Boguslaw Cieslar, a spokesman for Fiat, in an interview with the Polish Press Agency (PAP).

The announcement had been expected for some time.

It follows an agreement by which employees at the Fiat plant at Pomigliano, near Naples, consented to work a three-shift, 280-workday year as opposed to two shifts and 235 workdays, so as to improve productivity at the Italian factory.

The Pomigliano factory has recently been converted for the purposes of manufacturing Fiat Pandas, and production of the model in Poland has been gradually phased down over the last three years.

However, although production of the Fiat Panda looks set to be the preserve of the Pomigliano factory, the Italian company denies that the decision concerning the Polish factory was taken to improve sales of models from Pomigliano.

Representatives of Fiat have not made any statement yet about which model will fill the production gap at the Tychy. (nh)