Urso’s gripe is the latest in an on-going war of words between Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s nationalist government and the Franco-Italian vehicle producing giant Stellantis. The two sides continue to discuss plans to boost its domestic Italian car production to one million units.
Carlos Tavares, the CEO of Stellantis, has defended the choice to manufacture the new crossover outside of Italy as the economics from the lower labour cost Tychy plant will enable the EV’s starting price to be around £36,000, rather than a less competitive higher cost of c.£44,000+ if the car was made in Italy at Alfa Romeo’s Cassino factory.
Tavares has confirmed however, that the next-generation larger Stelvio SUV (due in 2025) and Giulia saloon (due in 2026), will continue to be built in Cassino, central Italy, where Stellantis will invest more than €100 million to install a European production for its new STLA Large platform.
For its wide portfolio of Italian marques, Stellantis has recently been studying the viability of vastly increasing production and sales volumes (to more than double the existing numbers) for models that are currently not selling in the needed project numbers. Proof of this can be seen at Fiat’s famous Mirafiori facility, where production of the good and low-selling electric Fiat 500e has recently been halved.
Fiat had expected the loveable 500e to have caught on with the buying public by now, but the model’s actual sales uptake has been disappointingly low and does not tally with the Italian government making strident noises about the scale of Stellantis’ commitment to Italy. Before the Milano name had been confirmed, the motoring media was rife with stories that the smaller new entry EV model would be called the Brennero, but this proved not to be the case.