MILAN (Reuters) – French-Italian carmaker Stellantis will move the assembly line of its Grugliasco plant close to Turin to nearby Mirafiori to increase efficiency, the FIM CISL union said on Monday.
All workers in Grugliasco will move to Mirafiori by 2024, FIM CISL added.
Grugliasco, where Stellantis makes some Maserati models, is just four km from Mirafiori. Its 1,100 workers have moved between the two sites based on production needs.
Since Stellantis was formed at the beginning of this year through the merger of Fiat Chrysler and France’s PSA, production in Italy has been under scrutiny for costing more than elsewhere in Europe.
After overhauling its Melfi plant in southern Italy in June, Stellantis is now focusing on rationalising its operations in the northern city of Turin.
All Maserati production at the so-called Turin hub will be concentrated in Mirafiori where Stellantis already makes the electric version of its 500 model, FIM CISL said.
The union added that the new e-segment Maserati sedans would also be assigned to Mirafiori.
FIM CISL announced details of the new production organisation as union representatives and Stellantis executives met industry and labour ministers in Rome.
In June, Stellantis decided to base future production at Melfi, its largest facility in the country, on a single enhanced line that will merge two existing ones with unchanged capacity. It will build four medium-segment electric vehicles, of different brands, from 2024.
The carmaker also said in July it would build one of its three European battery factories in Italy, at the Termoli site, which currently makes internal combustion engines.
(Reporting by Giulio Piovaccari; writing Giulio Piovaccari and Francesca Landini; editing by Cristina Carlevaro and Nick Macfie)
