Urso: 'Prohibited to produce a car called Milan in Poland. One million cars or another manufacturer inevitable'

The tug-of-war between the government and Stellantis continues, with the former resorting to Italian Sounding to support its position. "A car called 'Milan' cannot be produced in Poland. This is forbidden by the Italian law that defined Italian Sounding in 2003, a law that states that you must not give indications that mislead the consumer'. Thus Minister Adolfo Urso in Turin about the new Alfa Romeo Milano presented by Stellantis yesterday, Wednesday 10 April, in the Lombard capital. 'It would be fallacious indications explicitly linked to geographical indications. So a car called Milano has to be produced in Italy, otherwise you give a fallacious indication that is not allowed by Italian law,' added Urso.

Hence the message launched by Urso. 'We are working to put Stellantis in a position to produce at least one million vehicles in our country,' he said. 'To support the supply chain system, it is absolutely necessary to reach 1.4 million vehicles. This is how the Minister of Enterprise and Made in Italy commented on the statements of CEO Carlos Tavares. 'If Stellantis believes it can do so, well come on, otherwise,' stressed Urso, 'it is inevitable that there will be room for another car manufacturer or companies. We are a free market and we can and must incentivise Italian or foreign investment, obviously within the rules of the free market, and on this we are talking to those who consider building production plants in Europe,' Urso said on the sidelines of the inauguration of the House of Made in Italy in Turin.

'I understand,' Urso added, 'that the Chinese partner of Stellantis intends to set up a plant in Europe and is calibrating whether to do it in Poland or other countries. It could do it in Italy, welcome'. 'In Spain,' the minister recalled, 'there are seven carmakers, in other countries such as France, Poland, Germany, Slovakia and Hungary five or six. Italy is the only case in Europe where there is only one car manufacturer, which cannot meet the needs of the domestic market. It is an anomaly that needs to be rectified,' said Urso.

The tone then became more open. "The government is working to ensure that more cars are produced in our country in a constructive and ongoing dialogue with Stellantis so that the plan already announced by the CEO to produce at least one million vehicles in our country, which will partially satisfy domestic demand, can be realised. I am confident that we will succeed in bringing that project to fruition,' confided Urso, who attended a meeting at Cim 4.0 in Turin. 'Today the gap between cars produced and registered,' added the minister, 'is very wide, the widest in Europe. Stellantis produces 450,000 cars in Italy and two-thirds for export to source 1.4 million registered cars. So in Italy there are already other manufacturers covering half the domestic market. We want to cooperate as best we can with Stellantis, it is very important that we realise this plan to produce one million vehicles. The Italian government will play its part, but the cards must be clear.