Fiat Mirafiori

The Stabilimento di Mirafiori (in English, the Mirafiori Factory) is the headquarters and industrial district of the Italian automobile manufacturer Fiat a subsidiary of FCA Italy, which is part of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, and is the headquarters of CNH Industrial Group.

Stabilimento di Mirafiori
Built1939
LocationTurin, Italy
Coordinates45.027106°N 7.636399°W / 45.027106; -7.636399
IndustryAutomotive
ProductsMaserati Levante
Employees18.000 (2012)
Area2,000,000 m²
Address
  • Corso Giovanni Agnelli n.200
  • Turin, Italy

The name Mirafiori derives from the homonymous district in which it is located (in turn derived from the name of an ancient castle of the Savoy).

In the past, it was the largest Italian industrial complex, as well as the oldest automobile factory in Europe, still partially in operation today. It occupies an area of 2,000,000 m². Twenty kilometers of railway lines and 11 kilometers of underground roads link the various warehouses. The office building, which overlooks Corso Giovanni Agnelli, is a 5-storey building 220 meters long, covered with white Finale stone. The self-consumed electricity production of the plant was around 210 GWh/year in 2011. Today around 18,000 workers are working in the area and in 2012 there were about 41,600 cars produced. Actually produced the luxury crossover Maserati Levante.

In 80 years since the inauguration over 35 types of cars and 28.7 million vehicles has been produced at the Mirafiori plant.[1]

History

It was inaugurated on May 15, 1939 in the presence of Mussolini himself, but the Duce found himself speaking in a cold climate of workers, marked by the increase in food prices due to the politics of autarchy and the fear of the imminent war, which point to leave the stage when a question addressed to the crowd was answered only by a few hundred people out of the 50,000 present.

Mirafiori (1942)

The first model that should have been produced was the Fiat 700, a project left unfinished due to the outbreak of the Second World War . The car production really started only in 1947 with the second series of the Fiat 500 B “Topolino” and the relocation of the lines of the Fiat 1100, previously built at the Lingotto.

On March 5, 1943 the workers' strike began in the workshop 19 of the factory. In a few days 100,000 workers crossed their arms: it was the first major worker rebellion that will soon spread to all the factories in Northern Italy. Passed to history as the "strikes of March 1943", marked the beginning of the collapse of the fascist regime and represented the first choral episode of the anti-fascist resistance. Seriously damaged by air raids during the Second World War, the factory is rebuilt and expanded with a development project that culminates with the doubling, completed in 1958. Starting from the post-war period, the design of the most advanced Fiat products (cars, industrial vehicles, aeronautical engines, aircraft, etc.) was concentrated in the office building and the plant became the site of the greatest industrial development in Turin (new welfare, and inevitably also of great social tensions).

In 1956 the expansion called "Mirafiori-Sud" was inaugurated, where the activities of sheet metal stamping and mechanical machining (engines and gearboxes) were located and expanded, while in the original area (now called Mirafiori-Nord) they remained the paving, the painting, the assembly, the finishing and the test track, as well as minor workings.

In 1969, in full economic expansion, great agitation due to the three-year term of the metalworkers' work contract gave rise to the hot autumn. The contractual claims joined the students' demands, giving life to a movement that will shake Italy for over a decade. Years later, Enrico Berlinguer - with a gesture of strong emblematic value, not only inside the PCI - will go to speak to the gates of Mirafiori, occupied by the workers: "That" top action "is realized with increasing separateness among the levels of the organization: the top managers of professional politicians, a consolidated class of local administrators, the grassroots militants, the last representatives of a communist people spread among work, trade unions, commitment in and for the party".

In the early 70s the plant was upgraded to accommodate the production lines of a very important model for the Fiat range: the 131 sedan that - to honor the plant that reached the peak of production and technology in those years - was baptized by Fiat like 131 Mirafiori and it was the first model to reintroduce a numerical alpha denomination. The 131 was produced from 1974 to 1983 in 1,513,800 copies.

In October 2001 production of the Lancia Thesis start after the closure of the Fiat Rivalta plant.[2] In 2002 Fiat relocated the production of Lancia Lybra and Alfa Romeo 166.[3] In 2003 Mirafiori plant start to produce the minivan Fiat Idea and the sister Lancia Musa[4] and in 2006 start the second assembly line of the Fiat Grande Punto. Production of the Grande Punto stopped in 2007 and the assembly line was converted to produce the Alfa Romeo Mito and many components for the Abarth Grande Punto.

Mirafiori (2011)

On 18 February 2008 the new Abarth headquarters was inaugurated in the Officina 83 area, while the new Abarth 500 was also presented during the inauguration of the same.[5]

In July 2012 production of Fiat Idea and Lancia Musa ceased.[6]

In 2016 start the production of the luxury sport utility Maserati Levante.[7][8]

In summer 2018 the last Alfa Romeo Mito was built. Today only the Maserati Levante is built in Mirafiori but in November 2018 FCA announced that the production of the Fiat 500 Electric was planned for 2020. In July 2019 FCA starts investing 788 million of euro to building electric Fiat 500e.[9]

Vehicle produced in Mirafiori

References
  1. ilmessaggero.it, ed. (11 July 2019). "FCA, 80 anni dello stabilimento di Mirafiori". Retrieved 12 July 2019.
  2. europe.autonews.com, ed. (12 September 2001). "Thesis is the first to move to Mirafiori". Retrieved 12 July 2019.
  3. europe.autonews, ed. (2 July 2001). "Fiat ready to stop making cars at Rivalta". Retrieved 12 July 2019.
  4. quattroruote.it, ed. (5 March 2003). "Fiat e Lancia nel futuro". Retrieved 14 February 2019.
  5. autodesignmagazine.com, ed. (27 July 2018). "Sergio Marchionne e l'Officina 83". Retrieved 12 July 2019.
  6. torino.repubblica.it, ed. (22 July 2012). "Mirafiori dice addio alla Lancia Musa. In 2.600 senza lavoro per un anno e mezzo". Retrieved 11 July 2019.
  7. detroitnews.com, ed. (26 May 2016). "Fiat Chrysler increasing Maserati Levante production". Retrieved 11 July 2019.
  8. Joseph, Noah (1 March 2016). "Maserati Levante is Italy's answer to the Porsche Cayenne". autoblog.com. Retrieved 12 July 2019.
  9. "FCA Investing $788 Million To Build All-New Fiat 500 EV In Italy". 11 July 2019. Retrieved 11 July 2019.
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