Stellantis has pledged to invest €2bn in Italy next year and step up car production in the country, as it seeks to repair relations with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s government after bitter differences over how to tackle the deepening crisis in Europe’s automotive sector. At a roundtable meeting with several of Meloni’s cabinet ministers in Rome, Jean-Philippe Imparato, chief of Stellantis’s Europe operations, said Rome and the company should stop working at cross-purposes.
“It’s an important day for Italy’s automotive industry and Italian workers,” Urso said after the meeting, adding that Imparato “had affirmed the central role of our country in the industrial development of Stellantis in the world.” Urso has been lobbying Brussels to ease its strict “Green Deal” rules, which Rome blames for the collapse of Italy’s domestic car sales. Stellantis has focused on producing electric vehicles that were too costly for most Italian consumers.