Stellantis pledges to invest in Italy as he seeks a thaw with Rome

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Stellantis has pledged to invest 2 billion euros in Italy next year and boost car production in the country, as it seeks to mend ties with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s government after bitter disagreements over how to address the deepening crisis in Europe’s auto sector.

At a roundtable meeting with several Meloni government ministers in Rome, Jean-Philippe Imparato, head of Stellantis’ European operations, said Rome and the company should stop working to achieve conflicting goals.

“It is time for us, Stellantis, to unite with Italy to confront the existential challenges we face, which have been underestimated by some in Europe,” Imparato told ministers, according to attendees.

The pledges come as Stellantis boss John Elkann, a member of Italy’s Agnelli industrial dynasty, works to revive ties between Italy’s only big carmaker and the Meloni government, following the ouster of CEO Carlos Tavares.

Under Tavares’ leadership, the right-wing government of Stellantis and Meloni clashed fiercely over how to support Italy’s struggling auto sector, which accounts for about 250,000 jobs and more than 5 percent of gross domestic product.

Imparato warned later on Tuesday that reviving the sector would be difficult, but insisted the company was committed to Italy and would bring new full-size models – including sought-after hybrids – to Italian factories.

He told reporters: “I do not want to hide that 2025 will be a difficult year, but all factories will remain open.” He added that the historic Mirafiori plant in Turin – the cradle of the Italian automobile industry, where workers were on vacation for most of the year – will begin producing hybrid versions of the Fiat 500 at the end of next year.

Italian Industry Minister Adolfo Orso said the Meloni government would allocate 1 billion euros to help the auto industry, but not to support consumer car purchases but through special funds to help companies and innovations.

“It is an important day for the Italian automobile industry and Italian workers,” Orso said after the meeting, adding that Imparato “confirmed the central role of our country in the industrial development of Stellantis in the world.”

Orso is putting pressure on Brussels to ease strict “Green Deal” rules, which Rome holds responsible for the collapse of domestic car sales in Italy. Stellantis focused on producing electric cars that were too expensive for most Italian consumers.

But at a tense parliamentary hearing in October, Tavares sharply asserted that Stellantis was more willing than its rivals to comply with a strict EU carbon emissions reduction schedule, and that any relaxation of the rules would only help Stellantis’ rivals. He also complained that Italian incentives to help consumers buy electric cars were not enough, and that electricity prices in Italy were too high.

The auto sector’s woes also posed a political challenge for Meloni, with tens of thousands of furloughed auto workers descending on Rome to protest in October.

But Tavares’ surprise resignation last month gave Stellantis the opportunity for a fresh start in its boss’s home country, where it produces the Fiat 500, other mass-market models, commercial vehicles and high-end models under its Alfa Romeo and Maserati brands.

At the meeting on Tuesday, Imparato said Stellantis would support Rome’s campaign to pressure Brussels to ease punitive fines on automakers that don’t meet their carbon emissions targets in the next few years.

“Now we return to our factories, and start implementing our projects, hoping that the European authorities will understand this… We have to change the pace in terms of regulation,” he said.

Stellantis’ pledges will be good news for Italy’s struggling auto components industry, which expects to end 2024 with revenues of about 41 billion euros, down about 30 percent from the 58.3 billion euros recorded the previous year.

It follows a meeting between Elkann and French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday in which the Stellantis boss sought to provide reassurances about the company’s commitment to its operations in France, where it owns the Peugeot brand.

Additional reporting by Giuliana Ricozzi in Rome and Ian Johnston in Paris.