Italian government reprimands Stellantis over Polish-made Alfa Romeo ‘Milano’ – April 11, 2024

Italy’s industry minister on Thursday criticized Stellantis for manufacturing Alfa Romeo’s first electric car abroad, saying the company’s decision violated Italian law.

The Alfa Romeo brand, owned by Stellantis and with a long history of Italian cars, unveiled on Wednesday its new SUV Milano, named after the northern Italian city of Milan where Alfa Romeo was founded in 1910.

The car is built in the Tychy factory in Poland and is the first Alfa Romeo model to be produced outside of Italy.

“A car with the name Milano cannot be made in Poland. This is prohibited by Italian law,” Adolfo Urso said in Turin, referring to a 2003 law targeting “Italian-sounding” products claiming to be Italian.

“This law states that you cannot make any claim that misleads the consumer. Therefore, a car with the name Milano must be made in Italy. Otherwise it is a misleading claim, which is not allowed according to Italian law. “It’s vinegary,” Urso said.

Stellantis declined to comment.

Urso’s complaint is the latest in a war of words between Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s national government and the Franco-Italian carmaker as the two sides negotiate a plan to increase domestic car production to one million units. one to lead.

The law cited by Urso states that it is illegal to pass off a product made abroad as coming from Italy. As a rule, it is used for foods, for example “Parmesan” made in the USA, which is similar to the Italian “Parmigiano”.

Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares was quoted by Automotive News as saying that manufacturing the “Milano” in Poland instead of Italy will reduce the retail price by 10,000 euros, which will be less than 30,000 euros ($32,136.00) for the cheapest version of the Hybrid to begin with.

($1 = 0.9335 euros) (Reporting by Gianluca Semeraro; additional reporting by Giulio Piovaccari; Editing by Alvise Armellini and Bill Berkrot)