Fiat Auto SA has confirmed that the third-generation Fiat Panda will be released in South Africa late in the second quarter of 2012.
The new Panda will be seen in public for the first time at the Frankfurt motor show in mid-September and production will begin at the updated Pomigliano d'Arco plant in central Italy in November.
Fiat Group chief manufacturing officer Stefan Ketter said: "We are on track in refurbishing Pomigliano, which will become a truly state-of-the-art plant when it begins production in November."
In 2010 the run-down plant turned out about 30 000 Alfa 159 sedans and sport wagons, plus the last few 147 hatches GT sports coupés. Then Fiat Group CEO Sergio Marchionne gave the staff an ultimatum: increase their productivity by 70 percent by switching to a three-shift, 280-workday year from the current two shifts and 235 workdays or lose production of the new Panda to the Tychy factory in Poland, where current Pandas - and 500s - are built.
To everybody's surprise, the unions agreed and Fiat has since spent €800 million (R8 billion) retooling the plant for the new model. In November it will become part of Marchionne's "Fabbrica Italia" (Italian factory), plan to increase vehicle production in Italy from 650 000 units in 2010 to 1.4 million by 2014.