The Fiat Linea, which entered production in the first quarter of 2007, is presently imported to Eastern European markets from the Bursa factory in Turkey; it is also sold in selected Western European markets including Germany.

Serbian Economy Minister Mlađan Dinkić has confirmed  that the on-hold Fiat Topolino won't be built at the Zastava factory and instead he expects a C-segment sedan to be manufactured at the Kragujevac plant alongside the new low-cost sub-B-segment "Uno" model.

Dinkić was responding to Polish media speculation that the Panda-based Topolino would be built by the Zastava factory as one of two new models that Fiat is committed to manufacturing in Serbia alongside the Punto Classic which is currently being built in Kragujevac.

Last week in Rome  Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne unveiled, in front of Italian state and a regional governments as well as the carmaker's unions, a new industrial plan a month-and-a-half after outlining Chrysler's future business strategy. The production plan for Europe being reworked in light of the acquisition of 20 percent of Chrysler by Fiat which has opened the door to a string of platform and technology synergies. The plan though revealed that there has been a major cut-back of Fiat-developed models for the 2010-2011 period with a swage of Chrysler Group based models slated to fill out the gaps.

Most surprising in the presentation slides was the omission of several key future models including the absence of the Topolino, a city-car rival to the Toyota iQ and Volkswagen up! which is based on a shortened version of the 'Small' platform (Panda/500) with a length of 3.15 metres and set to feature the new 900cc SGE engine. This had been slated for Kragejuvac. There was no mention either of the MINI Clubman-rivalling stretched Fiat 500-based 'Giardiniera version as well as no facelift or model year updates in the plans for the C-segment Bravo.

The new sub-B-segment "Uno" model wasn't mentioned in the slides either although it was alluded to during Marchionne's speech. Developed by Fiat Centro Stile in conjunction with Fiat Brazil, Serbia will be the third global production hub for this model after Brazil and India.

Instead Dinkić told B92 TV this week that Zastava would be producing two new models for Fiat, the Uno in B-segment alongside a C-segment model, "which is where Škoda Octavia or Toyota Corolla belong," clearing the way for the Linea to be built at the factory, making Serbian the fourth global production hub for the low-cost sedan after Fiat's joint venture company, Tofaş, in Turkey (where it was originally developed), Brazil and India. At present the Linea, which entered production in the first quarter of 2007, is imported to Eastern European markets from the Bursa factory in Turkey. Based on the Fiat Grande Punto platform it is also sold in selected Western European markets including Germany. In its guise as a low-cost sedan it has been a huge success in India since launching at the beginning of the year although it has been much less successful in Brazil where Fiat attempted to pass it off as a more upmarket sedan and fitted it with a curious choice of (bigger) engines.

Dinkić told B92 TV this week that the first new model from the Serbian factory, the "Uno", which will feature characteristically 'upright' Fiat styling and take its key design cues from the Panda, would enter production in mid-2011. He also pointed out that Fiat had an obligation to hire at least 2,400 new employees by 2013, with many young people among them.