Stellantis unveils new EVs and touts Italian production
STELLANTIS unveiled two new electric vehicles (EVs) in Italy as the carmaker comes under rising pressure from local politicians to safeguard production and jobs in Fiat’s home country.
The company unveiled the battery-powered Fiat 600 compact sport utility vehicle and an electric revamp of the 1930s Topolino mini car at its factory in Turin on Tuesday (Jul 4).
The cars are produced at plants in Morocco and Poland, respectively. The SUV starts at 35,950 euros (S$52,789), while the Topolino – Italian for “little mouse” – will cost from 9,890 euros.
Chief executive officer Carlos Tavares is overhauling Stellantis’s industrial footprint – including with stringent cost reductions – at a time when governments in Italy and France are trying to protect local industries put at risk by the transition away from the combustion engine. Unions have complained that Stellantis isn’t investing enough in maintaining factories, citing clogged toilets and un-mowed grass.
Stellantis plans to cut as many as 2,000 jobs in Italy this year – some 4.3 per cent of its workforce in the country – as it retools plants to make electric and plug-in hybrid models.
“Stellantis has profound roots here in Italy, where we have a glorious past, a strong present and exciting future,” chairman John Elkann said at the inauguration ceremony in Turin. He cited the battery “Gigafactory” to be built in Termoli and Italian plants and added that Italy’s historic Mirafiori factory will be key for recycling materials and will be a “large business” in the company’s battery hub.
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At the same time, the manufacturer has pledged to boost production at its Melfi plant in southern Italy and is moving ahead with plans for a battery factory in Termoli. It’s also turning its iconic Turin facility into an EV hub.
Still, Italian officials have dialled up the pressure on Stellantis to keep local plants up and running amid concerns that the shift to EVs will require significantly fewer workers. The country even has room for another mass-market car maker to meet the rising demand for EVs, Industry Minister Adolfo Urso said last month, citing Stellantis’s higher output in France.
The country’s auto lobby suggested Italy should invest in Stellantis to boost its influence, though Finance Minister Giancarlo Giorgetti dismissed the notion at Bloomberg’s Italy Capital Markets Forum in early June.
The Amsterdam-based producer of Jeep, Peugeot and Alfa Romeo cars was formed from the merger of Fiat Chrysler with France’s PSA Group in 2021. BLOOMBERG
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