134 Fiat Topolino were seized at the port of Livorno in Italy because of a simple badge in the colors of the Italian flag. Stellantis is accused of misleading customers about the origin of the vehicles.
The standoff between the Stellantis group and the Italian government continues. After the Alfa Romeo Milano which had to be renamed Junior, because of a name which could mislead the customer about the origin of the car. The new victim of this parochial dispute is the Fiat Topolino, the Italian cousin of the Citroën Ami.
In an article from May 20, the Italpassion site reports this improbable information from Italy: 134 Fiat Topolino were seized by customs. The presence of an Italian flag affixed to the body of the quadricycle poses a problem on the Italian market.
All this for a tiny tricolor flag
On the door of the Fiat Topolino there is a very small, very discreet green, white and red badge. Fiat likes to put the Italian emblem on its various cars, but this habit will probably have to stop. Italian government agencies have once again stepped up against the Stellantis group, accusing the group of wanting – once again – to deceive customers about the origin of the vehicle.
The Fiat Topolino is not assembled in Italy, but in Morocco, like the other variations of the quadricycle: Citroën Ami and Opel Rocks-e. It was also during a delivery of new vehicles from the Moroccan factory that the models were seized by customs and the finance department in the port area.
The services concerned could very well have warned Fiat of the misuse of the tricolor flag well before these imports onto Italian soil, but this would certainly not have had the expected media effect. Stellantis and the Italian government have been engaged in a media battle for several months which is gradually turning into ridicule.
Fiat denies wanting to deceive customers
Faced with accusations from the finance and customs agency, Stellantis reacted by publishing an official response indicating that Fiat never wanted to deceive customers, that the origin of the vehicle is clearly displayed.
The response from the Stellantis group specifies: “ The sticker in question had the sole purpose of indicating the entrepreneurial origin of the product. In fact, the design of the new Topolino, Fiat’s historic car since 1936, was designed and developed in Turin by a team of professionals from Centro Stile Fiat of Stellantis Europe SpA, an Italian company. »
Remove the badge to resolve the conflict
As with the renaming of the Alfa Romeo Milano to Junior, Stellantis does not really seem to want to complicate life with long and tedious procedures against the Italian government’s vendetta.
To resolve the problem, the Stellantis group simply proposed to the Italian authorities to remove the Italian tricolor flag from the doors of the Fiat Topolino. An operation that could be carried out in a few minutes in the parking lot where the seized vehicles are stored. The competent authorities still need to authorize this modification on the vehicles and then lift the seizure of the vehicles.
As the Italpassion site points out, Fiat Topolino is not the only model sometimes sporting badges in Italian colors without having been produced in Italy. The Fiat 600 could also be a next victim of this war between the Italian government and Stellantis.
The Stellantis group doesn’t just make friends. This is a trend to follow in our newsletter dedicated to electric mobility, Watt Else:
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