Alfa Romeo Tonale production increased to meet expected U.S. demand

MILAN -- Stellantis is adding a second shift at its factory in Pomigliano, Italy to increase output of the Alfa Romeo Tonale compact SUV, while cutting a shift for the Fiat Panda minicar.

The production increase is expected to meet additional demand from export markets.

European sales of the Tonale started last spring. Deliveries to the U.S, where it will be sold only as a plug-in hybrid, will start in the second quarter. The Tonale was recently launched in Japan.

The Pomigliano factory in southern Italy will soon start production of the closely related Dodge Hornet compact SUV for North America.

With the new shift, Tonale output has increased to 400 vehicles a day, Stellantis said.

The production increase to two shifts per day on the Tonale line will end the temporary layoffs of 1,600 workers at the Pomigliano plant, according to the FIM union.

The union said that output at the factory increased by 34 percent in 2022 to 165,000 units, of which 20,000 were Tonales and 145,000 were Pandas.. Unions in Italy typically report production figures rather than automakers.

Alfa Romeo sold 11,171 Tonales in Europe in 2022, according to figures from Dataforce. Of that total, 4,661 were registered in Italy, the industry association UNRAE said.

CEO Jean-Philippe Imparato said in November that orders for the Tonale would reach 35,000 by the end of 2022.

The Tonale is available in Europe with gasoline plug-in hybrid and mild-hybrid drivetrains and also as a diesel variant in some European markets.

Imparato said the Tonale will help Alfa Romeo achieve his goal of generating 40 percent of the brand's global sales from outside Europe by 2030, compared with just 18 percent in 2021.

Production of the Dodge Hornet will start in the Pomigliano plant in the next few weeks and the first U.S. deliveries will follow in the second quarter.

Dodge CEO Tim Kuniskis said last August that he expects the Hornet to exceed 40,000 annual sales. The Hornet will be available with a 2.0-liter gasoline engine or a 1.5-liter plug-in hybrid.

One possible hurdle to production growth will be the availability of batteries. Imparato said in November that production on the Tonale plug-in hybrid would be capped in 2023 because Alfa Romeo will only receive 35,000 batteries from Chinese battery maker CATL. 

"We might be able to sell the whole 2023 production in a few months," he added. 

The Panda retained its lead in the minicar segment in Europe in 2022, with 126,033 sales, down 7.5 percent, according to Dataforce. It is set to be built at Pomigliano until 2026, unions said last year.