Stellantis: 'Plan Italia strengthened, but we are working on Alfa and Maserati'

The new Stellantis industrial plan presented in Detroit last week brings an extra model to Melfi in Italia - the new C-segment Alfa Romeo -, E-cars to Pomigliano - 'at least two models, starting with Fiat' - and the new generation of Pro-One, the commercial vehicles produced at Sevel. But questions remain on the table about the future of the Cassino plant, which is doubly linked to the Alfa Romeo and Maserati brands, and Mirafiori, for which the production target of 100,000 Fiat 500s - electric and hybrid - seems out of reach.

Emanuele Cappellano, Stellantis' number one in Europe, gives an overview of the effects of the strategy described by CEO Filosa on Italian plants. 'The production reduction of 800,000 units, which will be offset by partnerships with Leapmotor and Dongfeng, does not affect Italia,' Cappellano assures. Not least because the problem for the Group's industrial footprint in the country is to recover volumes in order to climb back up the slope with respect to a two-year period, 2024-25, that has taken Italia back to the production of the 1950s, although the one million vehicles seems, at the moment, to be an archived objective.

"The first quarter," Cappellano points out, "showed an increase in production over 2025. This leads us to expect that 2026 will still be a better year'. The Italia Plan therefore, presented in December 2024, assures Cappellano, is destined to strengthen even if the picture is still missing two fundamental pieces, the Alfa Romeo brand development plan and the Maserati plan. This is another reason why Cappellano does not update the figure for investments in production in Italia, but assures: 'We are working on a solution, our objective is to accelerate development and seize opportunities to increase efficiency and competitiveness. Whether this will happen through partnerships, or thanks to our engineering, we are still deciding, central themes however are economies of scale and competitiveness in these areas as well".

Segments D and E, hence the future plans for the relaunch or expansion of the model range for Alfa Romeo and Maserati, represent the weak point of the plan. Or, rather, the part where a clear vision is still lacking and which, therefore, faces the greatest unknowns, which are reflected in the Made in Italy production, in fact the 'natural' home of the two brands. The issue also concerns the question of production platforms: StellaOne represents the technological environment in which future models in segments B, C and partly D will be created - 'with an estimated cost saving of around 20%,' Cappellano clarifies - but it is not yet clear whether the old architecture - Stla Large, originally assigned to Cassino - will be definitively archived and what might replace it.

Market growth, Cappellano confirms, will be led by the two global brands of reference for Europe, which are Peugeot and Fiat. If we look at market share, in Europe, Peugeot 'dances' around 5% while Fiat stops at 2-2.5%. Clearly, therefore, it will be necessary to push on the range of new products in order to expand the market presence of the historic brand, which in any case at this stage, thanks to the driving force of Panda in Italia and Pandona in Europe, is leading the volume recovery phase in the Old Continent, with almost 30% more registrations in the first four months of the year.