The alert is now clear: the Termolia symbol of the Italian automotive industry for decades, is about to be dismantled. Yes, a month ago, Stellantis was content with silence or vague formulas, the latest signals leave no room for doubt. "From June or July onwards, there will be nothing left to produce", warn the unions, between muted anger and resignation.
One month earlier, an already uncertain future...
Last month, we reported on growing concerns about the site These include the gradual decline in combustion engine volumes, the end of the Nettuno V6 for Maserati, the GME for Alfa Romeo, and the poor visibility of the future of the GSE 1.0L engines for the Fiat Panda and 500 hybrids. At the time, the project to transform the plant into a gigafactory via ACC (Automotive Cells Company) already seemed to have been put on hold, due to a lack of solid prospects in the electric car market.
Today, dismantling is under way
But over the past few days, images from Termoli have been unequivocal: according to the Italian media primonumero, trucks leave the plant carrying the last electric cabs from the gearbox line. Employees watch helplessly as a promised future is physically dismantled. "It's a piece-by-piece disinvestment," sums up Gianluca Falcone, secretary of FIOM Molise.
The message is blunt: the Fire line is at a standstill, 8-valve engines have ceased production, and 16-valve engines will be discontinued this summer. The GME engine? On the way out. The V6? Too expensive, too marginalized. As for battery production, which was supposed to embody the site's green transition, it has simply disappeared off the radar.
Is the Gigafactory a political mirage?
Promoted with great enthusiasm by local and national politicians, the Termoli gigafactory is now no more than a memory. John Elkann himself admitted at a parliamentary hearing that it would be "very difficult" to build, citing high energy costs. Behind the scenes, Spain takes the cake with 4 billion euros of investment and a partnership with China's CATL. Meanwhile, the 370 million euros earmarked by the Molise region have been withdrawn.
A complete strategic vacuum
What the workers at Termoli are going through is not restructuring. It's a silent agony. Fewer than 2,000 employees today, compared with over 3,500 in the glory days. A professional future hanging on unfulfilled promises, with no industrial plan or concrete alternative. And the famous eDCT production lineannounced as a lifeline, should only concern around 300 employees... from 2026. "And until then, what do we do?" ask the unions.
The last hope lies in the future Fiat 500 hybrid scheduled for November 2025, and in the hybridization of V6 and GME 4-cylinder engines for future Alfa Romeo and Maserati models, but for the moment nothing official has been announced on this subject.
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