Ongoing tensions between Italy and Alfa Romeo’s parent company, Stellantis, came to a head last week when the Italian government told the automaker that naming its next Alfa Romeo EV Milano was opposed to the law because the car would be made in Poland. Alfa Romeo has to replace the call with anything that possibly doesn’t evoke any dolce vita emotion or preference for delicious Pepperidge Farm cookies, or any excitement at all. Apart from the overall softness.
Alfa Romeo has this afternoon presented an appeal to avoid problems and replace the call of its first electric vehicle to Junior, which sounds very and impartial, after “a confrontation with officials of the Ministry of Industry and Made in Italy” last Friday. European news. Things must have gotten a little hairy.
Alfa Romeo CEO Jean-Philippe Imparato told a press conference today that the company had tried to explain why keeping the Milan name was fair game for a number of reasons, one of them being that the car was designed in Italy, but it made a decision. The headache was too much. So, that’s the Junior.
“When you get into political discussions, you immediately lose part of your buyers and that’s what we’re looking for,” Imparato said, according to Automotive News Europe.
All this call drama started last week when Italy’s Industry Minister Adolfo Urso criticized Stellantis for the resolve to build the electric vehicle at Tychy’s plant in Poland, saying that if it wasn’t made in Italy, it wouldn’t have an Italian-sounding call. . , displaying a fake ad.
“A car called Milano can’t be produced in Poland. This is forbidden by Italian law,” he said, referring to the 2003 law that says it is illegal to misrepresent a foreign-made product as coming from Italy, but which has been invoked. opposed to food products, such as the ban on a product made in the United States: Parmigiano Reggiano cheese.
In any case, it’s arguably not the first time Alfa Romeo has used the Junior, which was used in an edition of the 105-series coupe and a limited-edition sports coupe from the ’70s. He was also on the shortlist of possible names before Milan reached the top.
The justification for manufacturing the vehicle outside Italy, which will be the first Alfa Romeo car made outside Italy, is purely financial.
“If it had been built in Italy, a Milano would have started with about 40,000 euros instead of 30,000 euros, which restricts its prospects in the market,” Carlos Tavares, CEO of Stellantis, said last week in Milan, according to the report. Hyundai Santa Fe and Tucson, Toyota Tacoma, Chevrolet Malibu, etc. ), however, this factor has more to do with Italy than Stellantis than anything else.
For months, Tavares has been at odds with the Italian government over what he says is its lack of adoption of electric cars and its lack of support for local brands Fiat and Alfa Romeo.
Italy’s populist Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, in turn, criticized Stellantis for shifting production to lower-cost countries, taking Italian staff out of contention as the auto industry struggles to adapt to electric cars. He also focused on getting more cars produced in Italy and targeting Stellantis. , its sole major automaker, for the mission, accused Stellantis of being subservient to French interests over Italian jobs and production; All of that is a political ball of wax.
I’ve named it after the prominent Italian explorer and pipefitter Mario.
Stellantis said that at this initial level of the game, the negative effects of a call replacement would be negligible.
Photo by: Stellantis
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Jennifer is an editor at France-based Electrek, previously working at Wired, Fast Company, and Agence France-Presse. Send them comments, suggestions, or recommendations via X (@JMossalgue) or jennifer@9to5mac. com.