Production of "punto" started in "Zastava" – minimum 2,000 automobiles per month starting May

The assembly-line production of “punto classic” vehicles has officially begun today (March 30, 2009) in Kragujevac-based factory "Zastava", and the first automobiles should appear in the market in mid-April.

The Director of “Fiat automobili Srbija”, Giovanni de Filipis, a representative of the Privatization Agency, Aleksandar Ljubić, managers of factory "Zastava" and representatives of local government of Kragujevac visited units "Karoserija" and "Montaža" today.

They were present when the first “punto classic” vehicle left the assembly line.

The Director of factory "Fiat automobili Srbija", Giovanni de Filipis, said after the tour of the units that there were 20 vehicles on the factory lines in every shift, and that, starting May, the monthly production should amount to minimum 2,000 automobiles.

The Director of factory "Zastava auto", Zoran Bogdanović, said to the press in Kragujevac that, for the time being, about 500 employees were engaged in production.

As he explained, the trial series of 35 “punto” vehicles was completed last week, as well as 350 automobile bodies, while every vehicle is checked in cooperation with Italian experts.

- Our plan is to increase the capacity of production to, at least, 100 automobiles per shift – said Bogdanović.

According to his words, "punto classic" is produced from the parts that are 100% Italian and according to the process that is similar as the one for production of "zastava 10".