Give up production capacity
A major shift is taking place at Stellantis’ Pomigliano factory in Italy, where the group builds all Alfa Romeos Tonale and Fiats Pandas. Stellantis doubles the number of shifts for the production of the Alfa Romeo, at the expense of capacity for the Panda. It does so to answer the expected demand for the Tonal.
The Alfa Romeo Tonale is doing well and to meet the expected demand from the United States, the brand is increasing the production capacity for its crossover to 400 cars per day. It does this by taking some of the capacity for the Fiat Panda. The Panda is the only other model built at the Pomigliano factory in Italy. That factory works in shifts and from now on two shifts will work instead of one on the Tonale, and one less on the Panda. The Panda and Tonale are not built in other factories.
The main reason for expanding the Tonale capacity is the imminent start of US deliveries of the Italian crossover. The Alfa Romeo will be launched there – only as a plug-in – in the second quarter. However, the number of Tonales that can be built is limited: the Italians only receive 35,000 battery packs per year from the Chinese CATL, which produces the batteries.
Tonal twins
The Fiat Panda is making way not only for the Tonale, but also for the Dodge Hornet. That is a Tonale-based crossover from the American brand, which it expects to sell 40,000 units per year in the US. More than 35,000 copies of the Tonale have been ordered worldwide so far. In 2022, the Pomigliano factory built some 20,000 Tonales, in addition to 145,000 Pandas. In 2023, the output should be a lot higher, since 400 Tonales alone have to be built per day. The 1,600 employees of the factory who were allowed to go on leave in the past period can therefore return to work, Automotive News Europe reports. Exactly how large the production capacity for the Tonale and Hornet will be on an annual basis remains unclear.
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– Thanks for information from Autoweek.nl