Alfa Romeo has presented its latest model – and is encountering resistance from the Italian government. The reason: It should be produced in Poland. This is not permitted, says Industry Minister Adolfo Urso, because the car has an Italian name: Milano.
The Alfa Romeo brand, owned by Stellantis and rooted in Italian automotive history, unveiled on Wednesday the “Milano,” named after the city of Milan where Alfa Romeo was founded in 1910. It is built in the Tychy factory in Poland – the first Alfa Romeo model to be manufactured entirely outside Italy. “Milano is misleading” “A car called Milano cannot be produced in Poland. This is forbidden under Italian law,” said the minister in Turin. He was referring to a law from 2003 that targets “Italian-sounding” products that are not made in Italy. “This law states that you cannot make claims that mislead the consumer. So a car with the name Milano must be made in Italy. Otherwise it is a misleading statement that is not permitted under Italian law,” said Urso. The government led by the right-wing populist Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has been at loggerheads with the French-Italian car manufacturer Stellantis for months. The government is pushing for a plan to increase domestic car production to one million units a year. The CEO of Stellantis, Carlos Tavares, explained that the production of the “Milano” in Poland instead of Italy will reduce the selling price by 10,000 euros. The car company Stellantis was created in January 2021 from the merger of Fiat Chrysler and the French PSA group . It includes brands such as Opel, Peugeot, Fiat and Alfa Romeo. In Italy, the group employs around 43,000 people – before the merger in 2021 there were more than 51,000.
source site-13