Alexandre
Today, August 22, 2024, a meeting was held dedicated to the Made in Italy and production linesIn Rimini, a landmark event for the Italian automotive industry. Among the many personalities in attendance, Adolfo Urso, the Minister for Made in Italy, took the opportunity to make important revelations concerning the future of automobile production in Italy.
At this meeting, Minister Urso confirmedonce again, advanced discussions with several Chinese automakers willing to produce on Italian soil. However, far from accepting these partnerships unconditionally, Italy is imposing a major rule to protect its interests and those of Europe. The Minister revealed that these manufacturers will have to must use European and Italian components in the manufacture of their vehicles.
Urso underlined the importance of this measure, saying: "The agreements we have signed provide for the use of European and Italian components. This will strengthen our production chains and jobs. We are against all those who think they can get around tariff barriers by assembling products on our continent." This strategy is designed to avoid what some feared would be a "Trojan horse" from Beijing. at the heart of Europe, enabling Italy to preserve its economic sovereignty while boosting its industry.
The Minister also took the opportunity to criticize the current strategy of Stellantis, which assembles Leapmotor cars using Chinese components in its Tychy plant in Poland. According to Urso, this practice runs counter to efforts to strengthen European and Italian production. He nevertheless expressed the government's willingness to work with Stellantis to increase production in Italy, pointing out that negative signals had been received from the manufacturer.
Concerning the Termoli gigafactoryUrso announced that the government is still waiting for an answer from Stellantis on its future. He added: "We expect Stellantis to assume social responsibility for revitalizing the automotive sector in Italy." As a reminder, Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares set the target of producing 1 million cars per year in Italy a year ago.
This revelation raises several questions: which Chinese manufacturer, to produce which brand, with which European components? A mystery.
A little bird tells me that Tavarès may well jump ship sooner than expected, given the various projects in progress and the disappointing results. Plausible (!?)
To be continued...
Stellantis has succeeded in at least one thing: getting everyone on his back! Customers, dealers and the icing on the cake, governments! And yet I find the Italian minister too wise. As far as I'm concerned, I'd have opened the floodgates to anyone who wanted to give Italians a job! What's more, given the collapse of Italian car production over the last few decades, it's been a long time since external suppliers have been working en masse for the Germans. I think that 60-70% of Mercedes components are made in Italy. So the minister is way off the mark, he's only protecting German manufacturers with such comments. The Italians need to produce cars, otherwise their know-how will die out!