Stellantis denies Italian government targets: «We never promised that»

As the Italian government continues to defend its strategy to revive the country's automotive industry, Stellantis has just thrown a spanner in the works. At a meeting in Mirafiori, Emanuele Cappellano, head of the group's extended Europe division, clearly denied that Stellantis had committed to producing a million vehicles a year in Italy.

This statement rekindles an old debate and, above all, reveals a major misunderstanding that has existed for several years between Rome's stated ambitions and the manufacturer's actual commitments.

«We never made it official».»

The sentence is unequivocal. In front of the press and trade unions, Emanuele Cappellano asserted that Stellantis had «never made official the target of one million vehicles to be produced in Italy».

This clarification comes at a time when the Italian government, notably through the voice of the Minister for Enterprise and Made in Italy Adolfo Urso, has regularly evoked this objective since 2024 as a symbol of the recovery of the national automotive industry. However, a rereading of the statements and events of the last two years reveals that Stellantis had never actually promised in black and white to achieve this production volume on its own.

An objective supported above all by the Italian government

The figure of one million vehicles did not appear by chance. Back in 2024, when Italian production of Stellantis was collapsing, the Italian government announced its intention to return to domestic production of one million vehicles a year.

At the time, Adolfo Urso was holding a series of meetings with Stellantis, trade unions and representatives of the automotive industry. The objective was clear: to revive the country's industrial production and preserve jobs in regions historically linked to the automotive industry. When the Minister summoned Stellantis to Mirafiori in March 2024, he was already explaining that Italy needed to return to a production level of one million vehicles a year. But this objective concerned the whole of the country's automotive industry, not just Stellantis.

A few months later Group production fell by more than 40 % in Italy, In our previous issue, we recalled that «the Italian government and Stellantis had set themselves the ambitious target of producing one million vehicles a year by 2030». A formulation which reflected the spirit of the discussions at the time, but which did not constitute a contractual promise on the part of the automaker.

Production well short of target levels

The problem is that the figures quickly made this target set by the Italian government increasingly difficult to achieve.

In 2024, Stellantis' Italian production fell below 500,000 vehicles, and then below 220,000 by 2025, its lowest level since 1955. The unions gradually began to doubt the feasibility of the government's ambitions. Even when Stellantis asserted that it had no intention of closing any plants in Italy or making any mass redundancies, employee representatives demanded more guarantees on investments and future models.

Stellantis promises investment, but not a million cars

Emanuele Cappellano's statement does not mean that Stellantis is abandoning Italy. On the contrary, the group reaffirmed a 2 billion euro investment plan for the country. The CEO also gave assurances that the production capacity cuts recently announced in Europe would not affect Italian plants. He highlighted future projects at Melfi and the electric vehicle program at Pomigliano.

With regard to Mirafiori, Stellantis continues to present the site as a future technology hub grouping together several strategic activities, notably the circular economy, batteries and certain European Group functions. But these announcements remain insufficient to fully convince the unions, who are now awaiting precise commitments on production volumes, industrial timetables and the future of the various sites.

A denial that embarrasses the government

In essence, Stellantis' statement highlights the difference between a political objective and an industrial commitment. For the past two years, the Italian government has widely communicated the prospect of a return to one million vehicles produced each year in the country. Today, however, Stellantis reminds us that he never officially promised to achieve this figure.

The two statements are not mutually exclusive. The million-vehicle target was indeed an ambition of the Italian government for the entire national automotive industry. On the other hand, there was never any formal public commitment by Stellantis to guarantee that this target would be reached. This nuance is important. It explains why Cappellano can now claim that Stellantis has «never promised» a million vehicles, while simultaneously confirming that the group will continue to invest in Italy.