Today is a big day for us, a big day for our country, with which our battle for the future Grande Fiat has already started, said President Aleksandar Vučić, at the ceremony where the Stellantis company marked a turning point with the production of a new model, the Fiat Grande Panda electric car.
In one year, 2,000 people from Kragujevac will work here, which means that about 2,000 families will depend on this factory, which is about 7,000 people. What we need to do is to install electric chargers, and we're late with this because, in order for people to start buying electric cars, we should have chargers everywhere. By the end of the year, we will have 116 of them, when we should have 5116. In five years, as the President pointed out, there will only be electric cars in Europe.
We need to change ourselves. We need to learn to meet the changes. We shouldn’t wait and be the last country to adapt to the changes. This is a huge opportunity for us, because we are the only country in the Western Balkans that has an electric car factory.
Thanking the Stellantis company for choosing Serbia, Mr. Vučić reminded that Serbia gave 48 million euros in order to have a factory like this in Kragujevac, which will increase the GDP growth by 0.5%. We will strive to welcome the next car in Kragujevac, even the flying taxi with Stellantis, as well as to install electric chargers all over Serbia. The President added that the country is investing in Kragujevac for the construction of the Northern Bypass, the stadium, and soon the construction of the military industry factory, which will enable the City of Kragujevac become a great industrial center again.
This is a historic day for the Kragujevac car industry. The new Fiat Grande Panda model has a modern, life style design and I believe that many people in Serbia will buy it, said the Mayor of Kragujevac, Mr. Nikola Dašić, pointing out that a good incentive for buying this model will be the state subsidies of 5,000 euros. What is most important is that we foresee even greater success of this car model in the world.
This is a big day for our country, because, with the new model, the country will participate in the foreign trade balance and raise its own competitive value. With the production of the Fiat Grande Panda model, Kragujevac confirms that it is the center of the car industry in the region and in Europe said Mr. Dašić. He also pointed out that, with the help of Stellantis, the trend of reducing the number of the unemployed people will continue. Compared to the period of six years ago, when we had 25,000 registered unemployed people, according to the data of the National Employment Service there are 11,900 now. At this moment this is of crucial importance, because our task is to provide people with jobs.
It is a great pleasure to be with the teams and union representatives in Kragujevac again to mark the impressive progress that has been achieved since we announced this investment two years ago. This is certainly a good moment to acknowledge the Stellantis team in Serbia for their commendable performance and commitment in front of the President of the Republic of Serbia, Mr. Aleksandar Vučić, whom I sincerely thank for his continuous support. The joint company we founded in 2008 is entering a new era with the production of the Fiat Grande Panda, its first electric car that contributes to providing clean, safe and affordable mobility to citizens around the world, said Carlos Tavares, the CEO of Stellantis.
Given the warm welcome this new model has received from automotive media around the world, Stellantis expects it to achieve commercial success in the years ahead. All employees in Serbia will do everything in their power to contribute to this success, guided by the constant improvement of performance in terms of quality and costs.
