Dark Days Are Brewing in Turin, Italy, as Fiat Tumbles

[Yardbird]

Dark Days Are Brewing in Turin, Italy, as Fiat Tumbles​

Story by Jarret Hendrickson
• 3 min read


The historic Mirafiori car plant in Turin, Italy, is struggling, like many automakers in Europe, to adapt to electrification, dwindling consumer demand, and Chinese competition. The 125–year–old plant, which manufactures Fiat automobiles, is one of many facilities floundering under the multinational company Stellantis.

It’s another sign of a once–prosperous European industry that continues to stumble through a turbulent automotive landscape. In total, Italy’s automotive production is on pace to reach its lowest production levels of the past 66 years.

Stalling Out​

According to a report from Reuters, demand for the Maserati sports cars and Fiat 500 electric city car has been so low as of late that Stellantis has suspended production duties at the Mirafiori plant for much of the year.

Italian plant worker Giacomo Zulianello told the news outlet, “Mirafiori has already been closed. It’s just that it reopens sometimes.” The rough times at Mirafiori did not arrive overnight, though.

Prior to the Fiat Chrysler and PSA Peugeot merger in 2021, that led to Stellantis becoming one of the world’s largest automakers, Fiat production was around 1 million units a year.

Decline​

With the total output of every Italian brand, Stellantis owns set to fall below 500,000 units this year, it is clear that Mirafiori’s glory days are long gone. It peaked decades ago.

In the 1960s, Fiat and the Mirafiori plant were a symbol of pride and industrial power for Turin and its population. The factory employed approximately 60,000 people and manufactured up to 1 million units per year.

An urban sociologist at Turin’s Polytechnic Institute told Reuters, “There is a taboo word here in Turin, which is ‘decline’…we can call it what we want…but it is a fairly incontrovertible fact.”

A City on a Precipice​

The Turin area, which is home to around 2.2 million people, has tried to reinvent itself in recent years. It features over a dozen universities, is close to the Alps, and has plenty of museum and cuisine attractions, making it an ideal tourist destination. The city is also home to Italy’s most successful soccer team and a booming aerospace industry.

However, around 60,000 Turin residents still rely on the automotive industry for employment. Even with so many other promising activities and institutions in the area, there are a lot of jobs to replace if the Italian car industry goes belly up.

Does Automotive Production Have a Future in Turin?

Turin was previously a hub for automotive production in Italy. At one point, it was home to five different car plants. Four of those are now gone. Mirafiori is the only automotive manufacturing facility left in the city.

Currently, its employees only work sporadically, and the average age of its workers is 57 to 58 years old. The automotive sector is no longer attracting younger generations. One Mirafiori worker, Michela Sanfilippo, told the news outlet that a younger man asked where she worked, and when she told him Stellantis/Fiat, he asked, “What’s that? What does it produce?”

What’s Next?

Stellantis workers in Italy are currently preparing for a national strike and marching in Rome in an effort to pressure the government and the automaker to protect their jobs. There is also hope the Italian government can attract another major automaker to the country.

However, turning things around in Turin will require more than just taking on Italian brands, such as Fiat or Alfa Romeo like Stellantis did. Manufacturing plants cannot thrive unless the companies backing them invest in these facilities as hubs for engineering and product development.

Francesco Zirpoli, a professor at Venice’s Ca’ Foscari University, told Reuters a catalyst for the country’s automotive manufacturing slump has been Stellantis mainly using French–produced engines and vehicle platforms. Unless Stellantis or some other automaker decides to invest in turning Turin back into a major production hub, the city’s days as an automotive production icon will remain a distant memory.

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