From 19 to 30 October 2026, 1,074 workers and employees of the Stellantis plant in Mirafiori, Turin, will be laid off. The company was unable to reach the volumes expected for 2026, despite the fact that the plant began producing the hybrid Fiat 500, alongside the electric one.
The cars produced in Turin this year will be between 60,000 and 80,000, compared to at least 100,000 in Stellantis’ plans. The problems reported by the company are many, from the cost of energy to the crisis in the European automotive market. However, the unions continue to push for the introduction of more than one model at Mirafiori, to prevent the factory’s performance from depending on the sales of just one type of car.
The redundancy fund returns to Mirafiori
The 1,074 Stellantis workers who will be laid off in the last two weeks of October will almost all be from the body shop department. Precisely, it is about:
- 934 workers;
- 140 employees.
It was Stellantis itself, after an internal meeting, which noted the difficulties of the plant and asked for social safety nets. A spokesperson for the multinational company said:
We are facing a complex situation, despite the investments and the doubling of production compared to last year.
What went wrong with the 500 hybrid
Mirafiori was supposed to begin a relaunch period in 2026. Since this year, the hybrid Fiat 500 has been produced in Turin, alongside the exclusively electric model of the same car, which was previously the only one assembled in the plant. Stellantis recently highlighted that by the end of the year, production volumes will have doubled compared to 2025 and could reach 80,000 units.
These, however, were not the premises of Stellantis’ investment in Mirafiori. The company had budgeted for at least 100,000 units in the first year, with hopes of reaching 120,000. The market, however, did not respond as expected, also due to internal competition problems with the new Grande Panda.
Stellantis wants to pay less for energy
Beyond the crisis in the automotive market in Europe, the problem that Stellantis continues to highlight for production in Italy is the cost of energy. In August, the multinational arrived to pay 250 euros per megawatt hour, more than double what it pays in France and Spain, where some of its largest European plants are located.
The unions are calling for new models
The unions continue to accuse the company of not doing enough and are especially concerned by the fact that Mirafiori has been tied to a single car model for years. This, according to the acronyms, exposes workers to market fluctuations. If the 500 sells, Mirafiori is fine, but if it doesn’t sell, the workers end up on redundancy pay.
For the next few years, workers are pushing to add more models within the factory. For Stellantis, however, it would be an additional cost, which the company does not seem willing to face.
The compromise of the new 500, from 2030
Stellantis CEO Antonio Filosa, however, proposed a compromise on the issue of differentiation. From 2030, the new generation of the 500 will arrive in Mirafiori. The group’s CEO explained:
It will be a multienergy car and will have different shapes. It’s like they were more models.
One line, different cars, to mitigate the impact of market changes on Mirafiori and offer a wider range.
