Can a car made in Poland be called a Milano?

DThe car manufacturer Alfa Romeo, founded in 1910, which is often sports cars and almost always respected in a near cult form by customers, “Alfisti”, recently presented its first electric model. It is a small SUV that goes by the name Milano. So, the car celebrated its world premiere in Milan, the capital of Lombardy.

But the car was not made there, nor anywhere else in northern Italy. But in Tychy, in the motor-loving south of Poland. There, the Stellantis group has cars (or transportation) of its brands manufactured – from Opel and Jeep to Fiat and Lancia to Alfa Romeo. Stellantis emerged in 2021 from the merger of the French Groupe PSA and the Fiat Group, to which Alfa Romeo has belonged since 1986.

“That’s forbidden”

The trade press says that the new Alfa Milano has a “chic” design and that a car with up to “240 hp” means that a “sporty driving character” can be expected. There is only controversy about the new “Milano” because of the name. Minister Alfredo Urso, whose cabinet department is officially called “Ministry of Trade and Made in Italy,” even claims that the name was a violation of the law: “A car called ‘Milano’ cannot be made in Poland. That is illegal.”

Urso refers to a 2003 law that prohibits the sale of a product with an Italian name if the product in question is manufactured outside Italy. For example, Parmesan cheese produced in the United States cannot be called “Parmigiano Reggiano” because it does not come from Italy’s Emilia-Romagna region.

Does this also mean for cars?

Protecting names of origin can be meaningful for agricultural products that come directly from the cultivation of the land. Farmers’ associations and foreign trade associations have been complaining for a long time about the loss of billions to Italian producers due to more than 600 Italian-sounding products that are spread all over the world and have nothing to do with “Made in Italy” – from dairy products. and pasta with sausage and meat with wine and prosecco.

But does the right to a protected name of origin also mean for cars? In the era of globalization, their parts are brought from many countries and then assembled in a convenient place for transportation and salary issues.

There has been a long-standing dispute between the Rome government and the Franco-Italian company because Stellantis produces fewer cars and car parts in Italy for cost reasons. An Alfa Romeo Milano produced in Tychy costs about 10,000 euros less per unit than if it were made in Milan, says Stellantis boss Carlos Tavares. However, it has been ruled out that the Polish SUV will be renamed Alfa Romeo “Tychy” after the Italian government intervened with the Portuguese boss of the French-Italian group.