Production and Sales
Within three weeks of the 500's launch, the entire year's production of 58,000 had been sold out. To date, Fiat has received more than 205,000 orders for the 500. While Italy has been the 500's main market (in October 2007, some 9,000 cars had been sold in Italy, making it the 3rd bestselling car there), the 500 has gained a strong following in many countries. Fiat France had received more than 10,000 orders by the end of October 2007. To cope with demand, Fiat has announced that production has been increased to 200,000 in 2008. The 500 was launched on January 21, 2008 in the UK. 500,000 500s have been produced up to March 2010.
In North America, initial sales were lower than anticipated, as of December 2011, only 16,000 500's were sold in North America, short of the initial goal of 50,000. Poor marketing and a shortage of dealers were blamed for the low numbers, Chrysler Group replaced North American head Laura Soave with Timothy Kuniskis, who was director of marketing for the Chrysler brand.
Read more about this topic: Fiat 500 (2007)
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