Stellantis CEO Decries Italy's Lack of BEV Incentives

Italy is not supporting the promotion of battery-electric vehicles and is forcing its sole mass-market automaker to cut production.

That is the message delivered by Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares as he rails against the country’s far-right populist administration’s lack of purchase incentives to persuade consumers to switch from internal-combustion engines to BEVs.

Reuters reports that Tavares made the comments on a visit to the group's factory in Atessa in central Italy, Europe's largest light-commercial-vehicle facility.

He calls for the Italian government to support sales of BEVs and to also help protect its Mirafiori plant, in Turin, which produces Fiat's 500e urban car. The plant has introduced temporary staff layoffs because of sluggish consumer demand.

The government wants Stellantis to increase its annual production in Italy to 1 million vehicles, from about 750,000 last year, while the automaker is seeking support measures, including cheaper energy costs and BEV sales incentives. Reuters reports the government next month is expected to present its new incentive scheme thought to be worth more than €900 million ($975 million) for this year.

Tavares says: “Stellantis has been asking the Italian government for the last nine months to support EV sales. Italy is spending much less money than any other great European country to support EVs. The consequence is that we are losing manufacturing products in Italy that we could manufacture. We already wasted nine months of additional production in Mirafiori.”

Tavares also outlines the group’s ambitions to expand its LCV products into North America and Asia aiming to topple Ford as the sector’s global leader by 2030. He adds, “We believe that within that time window, we have the potential to win this race.”

The group, already Europe’s top LCV producer, sold 1.8 million LCVs worldwide last year under its Fiat, Peugeot, Citroen, Opel, Vauxhall and Ram brands, up from 1.6 million units in 2022.