Recent developments suggest there could be more than just rumors to the supposed sale of Alfa Romeo to the VW Group. Following a report late last month saying Fiat and VW are negotiating a sale of Alfa Romeo and the Pomigliano d’Arco assembly plant, news broke out today from Europa Magazine that Volkswagen and Audi experts visited… the Pomigliano plant near Naples, in southern Italy.
Fiat spokesman Franco Sodano told German news agency DPA that experts working on the assembly of the VW Up city car and the Audi Q7 SUV were visiting the Pomigliano facility as part of a “routine” exercise in sharing industry best practices. As expected, Fiat quickly denied that the visit had anything to do with media rumors about a possible deal between the two companies.
However, the visit seems quite curious. While it is true that the retooled Pomigliano plant is a state-of-the-art facility, we have to confess we haven’t heard that often about rival manufacturers routinely sending delegations to visit competing plants in order to improve their manufacturing practices.
The Pomigliano facility now builds the Fiat Panda city car, but in the past, it was Alfa Romeo’s main plant. Pomigliano was awarded the Automotive Lean Production prize last year by a panel selected by German trade magazine Automobil Produktion.
But wait, there’s more to this story. According to Italy’s news agency ANSA, the Pomigliano plant was also visited today by a delegation from Fiat’s Kragujevac plant in Serbia, where the 500L is made. The million-dollar question is what were these people doing at the Panda plant the same day it was visited by the VW delegation? Could Fiat consider a transfer of the Panda production to Serbia in case VW buys Pomigliano?
We don’t know the answer to this question yet, but the plot may be getting thicker now with these new developments, don’t you think?
By Dan Mihalascu
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