A ship carrying the first 3,000 Fiat 500Ls for North America has unloaded them in Baltimore, Maryland and Halifax, Nova Scotia.
The vessel sailed from Bar port in Montenegro after the cars were railed from Fiat’s Kragujevac plant in Serbia.
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Production of North American versions began in March. They have a new 160hp, 1.4 ‘MultiAir Turbo’ petrol engine, with claimed highest power and torque (250 Nm) in the class, offered with six-speed manual or dual dry clutch automatic transmissions.
European 500L sales to date have reached about 34,000. Fiat Automobiles Serbia (FAS) plans to produce between 110,000 and 150,000 units this year for around 100 markets. The Serbian plant added about 600 extra workers for the new car and now employs about 3,000 people with a further 1,200 at suppliers.
Fiat is also launching an electric version of the smaller 500, with which it relaunched the brand in North America a couple of years ago. The EV initially will be sold (mostly leased) ony in California.
