TURIN -- High demand for the new 500 minicar has prompted Fiat to increase production.

"With minimal investment, from September our Tychy plant (in Poland) will expand 500 production from 120,000 units to 140,000 units on an annual basis," Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne said today in a call with financial analysts.

Fiat originally planned to build 58,000 units of the 500 this year.

Now, the Tychy plant will build between 65,000 and 67,000 units this year, and 140,000 units a year starting in 2008.

Three weeks after the car's launch in Italy early this month, and one week after its arrival in France, Fiat dealers already have sold out the entire production of the 500 planned for this year.

"As of yesterday, we had received 57,000 dealer orders for the 500, of which 51,000 are from Italy and 6,000 are from France," Marchionne said.

To build more 500s, and to make room for the second-generation Ford Ka that launches in autumn 2008, Fiat will expand the Tychy plant. The plant's annual capacity will rise to 500,000 units by the end of 2008, from 285,000 units now.

Within a year, Fiat expects Tychy to be able to build 140,000 units a year of the 500, plus 120,000 units of the Ford Ka and 240,000 units of the Fiat Panda.

With the expansion, Tychy will become Fiat Group Automobiles' second-largest plant, behind its factory in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, which makes 700,000 units a year.

Currently, Tychy is Fiat's third-largest plant. The Fiat factory in Melfi, Italy, makes 380,000 units a year.

You may e-mail Luca Ciferri at lciferri@craincom.de