Stellantis has scheduled an extra week of summer downtime at its Mirafiori factory in Turin, the company told unions, citing shortages of parts from some suppliers as the reason for the additional halt.
The automaker notified the FIM Cisl trade union that activities at the Mirafiori plant will stop from July 27 to July 31. That one-week pause is to be added to a three-week summer stoppage that had already been planned to begin in August.
A Stellantis spokesperson confirmed the extended break, saying shortages of supplied components including engines, bumpers and sensors were behind the decision to halt production for the extra week. The company noted that some suppliers were struggling to match the accelerated production pace for the Fiat 500 city car.
The Fiat 500 was relaunched late last year and includes a hybrid variant. Stellantis has previously set an internal aim to produce about 100,000 units of the Fiat 500 in 2026 across hybrid and fully electric versions, the company said last year. Separately, the groupurope Chief Emanuele Cappellano told unions last month that the company had manufactured 15,000 Fiat 500s in the first quarter and that production was accelerating, while not explicitly confirming the 100,000-unit target.
FIM Cisligure Igor Albera, however, said that continued stoppages at Mirafiori pointed to demand being weaker than expected. Albera also noted that earlier this year Stellantis had reduced the Mirafiori daily assembly rate for the 500 to 400 units from 430.
The Mirafiori plant had been due to resume operations on Tuesday after a one-week stoppage that coincided with a public holiday in Turin. The newly announced July 27-31 halt is scheduled ahead of the previously planned three-week August downtime.
The material reasons given by the automaker center on supply chain constraints - engines, bumpers and sensors were specifically cited - and the company indicated those shortages were linked in part to suppliers' difficulty in keeping pace with higher production levels for the Fiat 500.
Unions and company sources provided the timeline for the stoppage and the rationale for the extra week. While Stellantis described the pause as a response to parts supply shortages, union comments introduced the alternative explanation that market demand for the model may not be meeting expectations.
Operationally, the extension alters the plant's summer schedule by adding a discrete interruption between the short holiday-related stop and the longer August downtime. The cumulative effect on quarterly output was not quantified in the communications cited.
Contextual facts provided by the company and unions:
- Mirafiori stoppage added from July 27 to July 31.
- Extra week supplements a three-week summer downtime scheduled to start in August.
- Parts cited as in short supply include engines, bumpers and sensors.
- Stellantis had targeted about 100,000 Fiat 500 units in 2026 across hybrid and electric versions.
- Group produced 15,000 Fiat 500s in the first quarter, according to the groupurope Chief.