Stellantis half-year Italy vehicle production rises 13.7%, union says

July 3 (Reuters) - Stellantis' vehicle production in Italy rose 13.7% in the first half of 2026 from a year earlier, the FIM Cisl trade union said on Friday, but warned that projected full-year output would still fall short of levels seen in 2023.

The Franco-Italian carmaker's output in Italy, home to its Fiat, Alfa Romeo and Maserati brands, totalled 252,223 vehicles in the first six months of the year, according to the union's latest report.

FIM Cisl expects full-year output from the Italian plants to be around 500,000 vehicles, 33% down from 2023 production levels of around 750,000 and far below the Italian government's long-standing target of 1 million units per year.

• Passenger car production — which excludes commercial light vehicles — increased 27.7% year-on-year in the January-June period to 158,193 units, helped by new production lines for the Jeep Compass and the Fiat 500 hybrid, the union said.

• All Stellantis' Italian plants increased output except Cassino in the central Lazio region, which churns out Alfa Romeo and Maserati models and saw a 36.2% drop in production.

• Stellantis, Italy's sole major automaker, was not immediately available for comment. The automaker does not usually dispute FIM Cisl's quarterly reports on its Italian output.

• In January, the carmaker committed to increasing production at its Italian plants after output fell last year to the lowest level since 1954, in a bid to mend strained relations with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's government.

• On Friday, however, Stellantis informed unions of a new stoppage at the Fiat 500 factory in Mirafiori, Turin. Assembly lines will stop on July 6-7 due to engine shortages, a company spokesperson said.

• The Fiom Cgil union said it feared the stoppage could also be due to lower-than-expected demand for the city car. It noted that earlier this week Mirafiori's summer downtime period was extended by one week, starting from July 27.

(Reporting by Giulio Piovaccari, Emanuele Berro and Alvise Armellini, editing by Mirko Miorelli and Gavin Jones)