The Italian government has announced that it intends to use subsidies to encourage the purchase of electric cars, but also to help owners of cars with the Euro 2 standard to replace them with electric ones. This program includes a financial plan of 930 million euros (13,750 euros per car), which is a record amount of subsidies in Europe. The decision is not yet official, so the current demand for EVs dropped, which forced some manufacturers like Stellantis to start laying off employees.

Stellantis announced that due to reduced demand for EVs, it was forced to lay off more than 2,000 workers at the Mirafiori plant. This is not the first time that Stellantis makes such a decision, as a similar situation occurred at the end of last year.

The union is concerned about the decision to lay off a large number of workers and has asked Stellantis management for a meeting as soon as possible. “The layoffs will apply from February 12 to March 3 and will affect 1,250 workers who make the electric Fiat 500 and another 1,000 workers who work on the production of Maserati cars,” a company spokesman said.

The current global financial situation is not good, so saving every euro is important. As a result, buyers are holding off on purchasing electric vehicles while waiting for the government to implement the announced incentives.

Source: Stellantis