The Fiat 500 with a thermal engine, specifically the hybrid version with a 1.0-liter, 70-horsepower engine, has definitively gone out of production. The farewell may have gone a bit unnoticed, even though the news was already known after the statements made by CEO Olivier Francois.
Fiat 500 Hybrid will no longer be produced (for now)
“Production of the Fiat 500 hybrid in Poland has ended,” Francois told Autonews. “We are working to build a new 500 hybrid in Turin alongside the fully electric variant, but a significant investment is needed because the electric 500’s platform requires major modifications to accommodate a gasoline engine.”
The Fiat 500 hybrid was produced until a few days ago at the Stellantis Tychy plant in Poland, where other vehicles of the brand are also manufactured, starting with the Fiat 600, which was presented in July 2023. The old Lancia Ypsilon was also produced in the same plant, and in this case too, production has ended, making way for the 2024 model that was unveiled on February 14.
For this reason, layoffs have also been announced that affect the Tychy plant. Therefore, 250 people will have to leave the company by June 30, precisely as a result of the end of production by FCA Poland of the Segment A models, namely the Fiat 500 and the now old generation of Lancia Ypsilon. “At the moment, there is no detailed information on the number of people who could lose their jobs in Tychy and in the Bieruń-Lędziny district,” added Dorota Otok, trade unionist and director of the Tychy District Labor Office.
While the Ypsilon has already been replaced by the new model, available in both hybrid and electric versions, the 500 hybrid will not see a replacement, given that now only the electric version will be available, pending the arrival of the new model, but the timing will not be short at all. “The start of production in Turin may not happen before 2026,” Francois explained. “The base on which the electric 500 is built cost us 600 million euros, but using it also for the Mild Hybrid variant would allow us to continue to have large sales volumes for this model.”
We recall that the future new Fiat 500 hybrid could also arrive in the United States and be available together with the 500e, which recently landed in the market.