Production of electric cars in Kragujevac not to start in October?

Judging by the unofficial information from the Stellantis’ factory Fiat Chrysler Automobiles Serbia (FCA), the long-announced beginning of the serial production of the electric model of Grande Panda in Kragujevac will start at the end of this year, or in March 2025, instead of October.

The reason for the potential delay is not cited, but it is assumed that it is caused by the weak demand for electric vehicles in European markets, so there are increasing speculations in the Kragujevac factory about a temporary vacation for the employees, a possibility which the management is excluding so far.

In addition to the production of the electric Grande Panda, the beginning of the production of the hybrid version of Grande Panda will be late as well, and the until recently almost certain assembly of the electric Citroen eC3 in Kragujevac is now seriously brought into question.

The FCA management says for Radar that everything is “going as planned,” that “the project has been well accepted in the European and international public,” that that kind of atmosphere should not be spoiled and that there is no reason to worry.

They also emphasize that nobody from Stellantis has officially announced that the production of the electric and hybrid Grande Pandas in Kragujevac will begin in October. To be fair, that is true, just as it is true that nobody has refuted the claims of the president of Serbia, Aleksandar Vucic, that the serial production of those models will begin “in the final quarter of this year.”

And while there are speculations at FCA that, due to the new situation, the employment of new workers, for which three employment agencies have also been hired, has been temporarily stopped, the management is denying this and claims that the new workers are being “employed in line with the plan and the set dynamics.” Only two months ago, on July 22, at the promotion of the electric Grande Panda, it was said that 2,000 employees would work at the factory. On that day, there were around 800 workers on the payroll, and now there are as many or slightly fewer, because some have left FCA in the meantime.

Despite the numerous problems, those familiar with the situation in the automotive industry are predominantly convinced that Stellantis should not fail in Kragujevac, especially since Fiat, according to CEO Carlos Tavares, with its annual sales of 13.5 million cars, is the leading brand of Stellantis, the multinational company within which it operates. Furthermore, Grande Panda is Fiat’s new asset in the so-called B segment, and vehicles of that class participate in the total sales with as much as 20%. The Italian company has not had a vehicle in that segment for years now, so Grande Panda is the model on which the further development is based.

As a minority co-owner of FCA, Serbia too shouldn’t miss the developmental opportunity opened by the production of the electric and hybrid versions of Grande Panda in Kragujevac, and it is expected that the production of those two models could increase Serbia’s GDP by 0.5%.

In the past two and a half years, since the Government of Serbia paid EUR 40 million as its share and signed the agreement with Stellantis on the production of electric cars in Kragujevac in April 2022, the state of Serbia “has not moved a finger” to secure elementary infrastructural, primarily traffic conditions for its operations, writes Radar. On the contrary, it has ignored all the needs of FCA Serbia, so perhaps that has partly contributed to the almost certain delay of the deadline for the beginning of the serial production of the electric and hybrid Grande Pandas and the potential giving up on the assembly of the electric Citroen eC3 in Kragujevac, they add.

FCA Srbija Kragujevac

Vlada Republike Srbije

Stellantis

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles Serbia

FCA

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles

Government of Serbia

Carlos Tavares

production of electric cars in Kragujevac

Grande Panda

Panda car

electric Panda car

hybrid Panda car

electric Citroen eC3

Stellantis Kragujevac employment