Fiat 500 Output Runs at 60% of Plan as Mirafiori Idles a Fourth Week

By Daniel Okafor

Stellantis will keep its Mirafiori plant in Turin idle for a fourth consecutive week, extending the halt on Fiat 500 production through 9–13 November — while the model's full-year output is now expected to land near 60,000 units against an original target of 100,000.

That's a car running at roughly 60% of plan across a full year. Supply problems can eat a week here or there. A 40% shortfall across twelve months is something else.

What's stopping the line this time?

The official explanation has rotated. A Stellantis spokesperson told Reuters the first two weeks of the stoppage, which began in mid-October, came down to weak demand. This week and next, the company says, the cause is a shortage of chips used in engine control units.

Last week, Stellantis said the component gap was causing "significant" disruption to Italian production of both the Fiat 500 and the Fiat Pandina, with Mirafiori and Pomigliano facing possible temporary shutdowns into December. Around 1,400 workers at Mirafiori have been affected.

The chip story has a precedent, and it didn't age well. When Stellantis halted Mirafiori in early September, it blamed an engine component shortfall at Teksid's Carmagnola plant, which it said couldn't keep pace with stronger-than-expected hybrid demand. Within six weeks, the same model was idled for lack of buyers.

Why the unions aren't buying it

Gianni Mannori, leader of the FIOM metalworkers' union, called the component explanation "an alibi." The volume figures give him room to argue.

The hybrid 500 has now absorbed a four-week summer stoppage, a September halt and a month-long autumn shutdown. When the company itself cites demand for part of the downtime, the picture that emerges isn't a supply chain in temporary distress — it's a target that was never realistic.

The takeaway in plain words: the chips may be scarce, but the buyers are scarcer.

Does the wider Italian recovery hold up?

Partly, and only partly. Stellantis's Italian output rose 28% to 340,745 vehicles in the first nine months of the year, putting the country on course for around 450,000 units in total. That follows 2025 production falling to its lowest level since 1954 — a base effect worth remembering when a rebound percentage looks heroic.

And the rebound is narrow. It rests heavily on three nameplates: the Panda, the Jeep Compass at Melfi, and vans from Atessa. Cassino output is down 37.1%. The hybrid 500 was supposed to be the passenger car that broadened that base. Instead, it's the fragility inside it.

Who's actually selling hybrids in Europe

European appetite for hybrids isn't the problem. Who supplies them is.

Chinese brands took one in four hybrid sales and one in three plug-in hybrid sales across Europe in August — helped, ironically, by the EU's decision to focus its anti-subsidy duties solely on battery-electric models, leaving hybrid imports untouched. Stellantis's own Leapmotor International joint venture grew EU sales by 211% year-on-year in the same month.

None of that growth adds a single unit to Italian factory output. The sales are real; the factories just aren't Italian.

The capacity Stellantis won't sell

Here's the sharpest edge of the dilemma. BYD held talks over the Grugliasco plant near Turin, and the site was declared "not for sale," according to BYD European adviser Alfredo Altavilla. The Chinese automaker has since shifted its plant search to Spain and France.

So Stellantis is protecting Italian capacity it cannot fill — 1,400 idled workers at Mirafiori being the current evidence — while refusing the one bid on the table. That leaves the Italian government with little leverage beyond demanding model commitments from the only major automaker it has.

Not a strong negotiating position, one automaker at a time.

What to watch next: whether Mirafiori and Pomigliano actually restart in December as the company's timeline implies, and whether the final 2025 Italian output figure clears the 450,000 mark without the 500 contributing its share.