Fiat Grande Panda on the streets of Kragujevac (Photo: Autoblog.rs)
Preparations for the start of serial production of the electric car “Fiat Grand Panda” in the Kragujevac plant are accelerating and its official start is expected soon, he confirmed for “Policy” Saša Đorđević, president of the Independent Trade Union in that factory.
Fiat Grande Panda on the streets of Kragujevac (Photo: Autoblog.rs)
– Every day we are getting closer to the beginning. We don’t have a precise date yet, but it’s not far away like it was a few months ago. Everything is speeding up, we have an increasing number of cars that are built on a daily basis, and accordingly we have a greater number of workers who have come to us and who will come to us – said Đorđević, but he could not specify how many people will be engaged in production .
Fiat Grande Panda on the streets of Kragujevac (Photo: Autoblog.rs)
Đorđević stated that the finalization is definitely underway, but that there is no indication of what the exact date would be. The President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić, recently announced that serial production of this model in Kragujevac could start as early as the third week of January, and emphasized that it will greatly contribute to the growth of the country’s GDP. If more than 100,000 vehicles were produced in the Kragujevac factory, it could be expected that the GDP growth rate would reach 4.2 or 4.3 percent.
– After a short holiday break, we started working two days ago. The tasks are currently standard, we expect more precise information – said Đorđević.
Fiat Grande Panda on the streets of Kragujevac (Photo: Autoblog.rs)
Let us remind you that in July of last year, the company “FCA Serbia” at the “Stelantisova” factory in Kragujevac started trial production of the electric car model “Fiat Grand Panda”.
Fiat Grande Panda at the fair in Brussels (Photo: Stellantis)
Đorđević says that the standard procedure in the automotive industry is to increase the number of cars produced on a daily basis from the period of promoting the start of production, so that at a certain moment their serial production can begin. As he points out, it was the same in Kragujevac.
According to him, existing and new equipment need to be harmonized, new workers are coming, and inevitably also suppliers and the quantities of parts they deliver due to the upward production process.
Fiat Grande Panda at the fair in Brussels (Photo: Stellantis)
“Stelantis” is the majority owner of the car factory in Kragujevac, while the minority share is owned by the Republic of Serbia.
And according to earlier forecasts of economic analysts, the announcement of serial production of an electric car in the plants in Kragujevac would have great potential for our GDP. Some economists believe that the positive contribution of the expected production to the gross domestic product, as the final result, would be up to one percentage point. But they believe that it is still necessary to wait for “Stelantis”, which postponed production in the previous period, to officially start now.
According to earlier announcements, the “grande panda” would be produced in two versions – electric and hybrid. From the plant in Serbia, it would arrive first in Europe, then in the Middle East and in Africa. To begin with, the production of the electric version would start, while the hybrid version would arrive a little later.
Source: Politika.rs
VIDEO: Fiat Grande Panda at the fair in Brussels
Video by Caradisiac
Source: autoblog.rs
