Fiat Auto Poland's car plant in Tychy, some 300km south-west of Warsaw, produced 361,787 units last year, a total which was led out by the Panda city car (top) and followed by the acclaimed new 500 model (above).

Fiat Auto Poland's car plant in Tychy, some 300km south-west of Warsaw, produced 361,787 units last year, a total which was led out by the Panda city car, and followed by the acclaimed new 500 model.

Fiat's Polish plant built a total of 361,787 cars last year:

- Fiat Panda: 260,695
- Fiat 500: 65,116
- Fiat 600: 35,976

Fiat Auto Poland says the Panda city car has become one of today's most successful automotive products worldwide. These yearly sales figures speak for themselves:

- 2003: 70,115
- 2004: 206,638
- 2005: 214,478
- 2006: 262,178
- 2007: 260,695

Winning the prestigious Car of the Year honours back in 2004, the Polish-made car first went on sale on the domestic market in August 2003. Crucially, 348,354 of the cars Fiat Auto Poland built at Tychy last year went to 60 export markets worldwide, making it 96.3 percent of the overall supply in 2007.

Another milestone for the Fiat Auto Poland Tychy site was the production launch of the all-new Fiat 500 supermini in May 2007. The newcomer was shown for the first time to much critical acclaim at a Turin gala, July 4. The 500, which measures just 3.55m long, has been awarded five stars for passenger safety from Euro NCAP, the Europe's leading independent crash test organisation. The highly successful supermini has many titles to its name, including the 2007 EuroCarBody trophy, Auto Europa 2008, Car of the Year 2008 and Poland's 2008 Auto 1 Car of the Year.

Fiat Auto Poland is happy to have been able to deliver these strong performance figures despite the following projects launched at the site: the Fiat 500 production kick-off; and making preparations to start all-new Ford Ka production in 2008. Tychy saw some EUR 2.61bn worth of export sales last year.

report: Samar