Between Ford and Fiat today’s news is mostly about automotive doom and gloom in Europe. No, we’re not talking about the onset of their winter, although for many 2012 must have felt like the onset of some kind of financial winter.
Speculation says that Fiat has decided its lacklustre B-segment hatch, the Fiat Punto, should be put out of its misery once and for all. The Punto may have just gone through a mid-life (or so we thought) refresh, but that hasn’t improved its sales figures. The Fiat Punto is the world’s 11th most popular B-Segment hatchback after the Volkswagen Polo, Ford Fiesta, Renault Clio and eight others.
With the European market dropping 7.8% this year and Fiat’s home market down 19.7%, Spain down 11.9%, Greece down 39.9% and Portugal down 38.3%, the Italian carmaker is feeling the pressure. Fiat therefore plans to halt production of the Punto hatchback at its Melfi plant in southern Italy.
The Reuters report last week stated that Fiat will place around 5 000 workers on an early layoff holiday scheme from December 17 until January 13 at the Melfi plant, creating the speculation that this might indeed be the end of the road for the Fiat Punto. Although this isn’t the first time Fiat has temporarily shut down its factories in Italy, as the company deals with weak demand and plants that are over capacity, we believe 2012’s ‘perfect storm’ of factors must surely spell the end for the Fiat Punto this time round.
