Fiat is once again
tearing up its forward plans and pushing back the
arrival of a string of important new models, most
notably the long-awaited next-generation Panda which is
now not slated to hit showrooms until 2012.
Last week at the 79th
Paris Mondial de l’Automobile, Fiat CEO Sergio
Marchionne said that he would be freezing the arrival of
new models to the Fiat product lineup, claiming that the
slowdown in the European market made the timing
unfavourable. “Launching new products in a market that
is so structurally weak makes no sense,” Marchionne told
reporters at the French show. “We are saving our
ammunition for a recovery.” Marchionne sees 2011 being
flat, with a weaker Q1 to counterbalance the first three
months of this year, when state ‘eco’ incentives drove
car buyers into the showrooms.
Today Automotive
News Europe, citing insiders familiar with the
matter, put dates on some of the models to be affected
by the stalling tactic. The new Panda, slated to be
built in Italy instead of its current home at Tychy in
Poland, and one of the most important of the new
arrivals, is to drop right back to 2012, leaving the
existing former Car of the Year-winning model
with even longer to hold up the baton in A-segment where
it still rules the roost, despite increasing
competition, especially from Korean brands. Marchionne
plans to build the new generation of Panda at Alfa
Romeo’s underused plant at Pomigliano d’Arco, although
he has run into union objections to the plan and a green
light still needs to be given. The new Panda was
originally due in the showrooms this year.
The new Lancia Ypsilon
is another high-profile casualty of the freeze, with the
B-segment hatchback slipping back to a May 2011 launch
date, meaning the supermini would be more than two years
behind schedule – and this even if its launch is not
delayed further. The current Ypsilon has seen its sales
holding up well despite its age and a very light
mid-life facelift; it is in fact based on the
underpinnings of the old Fiat Punto Classic.
As Fiat’s most recent
business plan, flourished earlier this year, is
hurriedly put to the torch, further strategic Fiat
models to face more delays include the new 5-seater and
LWB 7-seater minivan which will replace Fiat’s Idea and
Multipla. This model, developed on the Grande Punto’s
platform, could well be built at the former Zastava Auto
factory in Serbia instead of Italy, where it has been
been proposed for production by Marchionne. From an
initial December next year launch date, ANE says
these two models won’t now arrive until late 2012.
Fiat is currently being battered by a sharp slump in
demand for its products, and throughout the summer and
early autumn it has been the worst-performing major car
making group on the European market, pushed downwards by
an ageing model range. In particular, these have been
driven by lukewarm customer reception for the restyling
its biggest-selling model, the Punto EVO, and faltering
sales on its home market as incentives have dried,
meaning new models are urgently needed to plug gaps in
its range.
