The Italian government remains firm against the Stellantis automobile group which produces Fiat Topolino, a 100% electric ultra-city vehicle, in the Kenitra factory, in Morocco and exports them to Italy.
The Italian government, which values made in Italy, does not want an Italian flag on the Stellantis Topolino. This week, Italian police seized more than 134 Fiat cars imported from Morocco because a sticker in the colors of the Italian flag affixed to their doors could give a false indication of their origin, a spokesperson for Stellantis Italia said on Saturday. The operation took place in the port of Livorno. The group is accused of having produced Fiat Topolino in the Kénitra factory in Morocco and of having stuck an Italian flag on the vehicles which could give a misleading indication of the place of production to the Italian customer.
“The sole purpose of the sticker was to indicate the entrepreneurial origin of the product,” the spokesperson said, adding that the group believed it had acted in full compliance with the rules. Also, he made a point of specifying that the design of the new Topolino – a historic Fiat model since 1936 – had been designed and developed in Italy by a team from Centro Stile FIAT, which is part of Stellantis Europe, an Italian company. and to ensure that the decision to produce the new Topolino in Morocco was clear since the announcement of the new model. “In any case, to resolve possible problems, it was decided to intervene on the vehicles by removing the small stickers, subject to the green light from the authorities,” added the spokesperson.
For months, the Italian government and Stellantis have disagreed over the group’s production choices, reports Reuters. According to Rome, cars marketed as Italian products should be produced domestically. This is how last April, Alfa Romeo’s first electric city SUV manufactured in Poland abandoned the name Milano chosen for the city of Milan where the Alfa Romeo brand was born in 1910, in favor of the Junior appellation.
