There is still considerable confusion about the names – Grizzly and Koala, but for some the latter might be Giga Panda or even Multipla – less so about the shapes (both SUVs, one more traditional and one recalling coupé forms, both produced on the Stellantis Smart Car platform), while one aspect is almost certain: they will bear the Fiat brand but will be produced in Morocco.
STELLANTIS RACES IN MOROCCO…
Stellantis’ intentions regarding Morocco have been known for some time. However, the latest rumors would confirm what was feared: namely that the North African country is becoming a new Fiat hub, alongside or even largely replacing the plants in Eastern Europe.
…WHILE ITALY CONTINUES TO STALL
All this while the production of the Italo-French Group in Italy steadily slows down. In January Quattroruote headlined: “Car production in Italy returns to levels of 70 years ago.” Echoing this was Il Sole24Ore: “Stellantis, Italian production down 20% in 2025. Mirafiori the only growth.”
STELLANTIS’ ITALIAN 2025
Even the government, the first to have established a ministry “of Made in Italy,” which for the first two years insisted that Stellantis bring Italian production back above the psychological threshold of one million units, seems to have thrown in the towel.
The Fim-Cisl figures are, after all, unforgiving: in 2025, Fiat, Maserati, Lancia, and Alfa Romeo plants along the peninsula produced a total of 379,706 units including passenger cars and commercial vehicles, a 20% drop compared to the previous year, which until now was considered the worst in the history of Italian automotive.
COMPETITION FROM EAST AND SOUTH
While production at the Cassino, Pomigliano, Melfi, Modena, and Atessa plants fell by double digits, days of layoff schemes outnumber working days (which still proceed at reduced capacity), and workers’ representatives continue to loudly demand that new models be assigned to plants that have been stagnant for too long, the management’s intention to build the futuristic Fiat Grizzly and Koala in Morocco, at the Kenitra factory, clashes.
Employees fear having to endure new internal competition from the plants the Group has in North Africa, as if the competition from Eastern European countries wasn’t already enough (unions lamented last autumn: “It is necessary to continue closely monitoring the production trend of the Panda as well, considering the direct competition from the new electric Panda which will be produced at the Kragujevac plant in Serbia”).
The paradox is that, while 2026 seems to have started in the best possible way for Fiat on the sales front, with 63,000 registrations across Europe and a 36.9% year-on-year increase, Italian production could still remain in a state of great distress.
WHAT IS PRODUCED IN KENITRA
The Moroccan plant in question already produces prominent models: since 2019 it has been producing the Peugeot 208, while in subsequent years it started assembling the electric quadricycle Citroën Ami, which then made it the most obvious cradle for the Fiat Topolino that our government, when still battling with Stellantis, blocked in Italian ports due to the Italian sounding regulation. Also at Kenitra, the Group’s other microcars, namely the Opel Rocks-e, are produced.
But with electric mobility undergoing significant downsizing, it seems those lines, the result of a rather recent 300 million euro investment, will soon be dedicated to more traditional vehicles. Stellantis has major interests in the North African area, also considering the Fiat hub in Tafraoui, Algeria. And simultaneously, to avoid upsetting American President Donald Trump, it has already announced plans to invest 13 billion in the USA: the fear, therefore, is that the Group’s focus is across the Atlantic and that it prefers to concentrate its Mediterranean operations on North Africa rather than on historic European plants.
Whether these fears are founded or not, since they currently rest only on press rumors, will only be known on May 21 at the presentation of the new industrial plan, the first of the Filosa era. Which, a somewhat unsettling sign for Europe, will be announced during an event in the United States.
