Stellantis’ new industrial plan presented in Detroit last week brings to Italy an additional model in Melfi – the new C-segment Alfa Romeo -, the E-cars in Pomigliano – “at least two models, starting with Fiat” – and the new generation of Pro-One, the commercial vehicles produced in Sevel. But questions remain on the table about the future of the Cassino plant, double-linked to the Alfa Romeo and Maserati brands, and of Mirafiori, for which the production objective of 100,000 Fiat 500s – electric and hybrid – seems out of reach.
Emanuele Cappellano, number one at Stellantis in Europe, outlines the impact on the Italian factories of the strategy described by CEO Filosa. «The production reduction of 800 thousand units, which will be compensated by the partnerships with Leapmotor and Dongfeng, does not concern Italy» assures Cappellano. Also because the problem for the Group’s industrial footprint in the country is that of recovering volumes to get back on top compared to a two-year period, 2024-25, which has brought Italy back to the production of the 1950s, although the million vehicles seems, at the moment, to be an archived objective.
«The first quarter – highlights Cappellano – recorded an increase in production compared to 2025. This leads us to predict that 2026 will still be a better year». The Italy Plan, therefore, presented in December 2024, Cappellano assures, is destined to strengthen even if the framework is still missing two fundamental pieces, the development plan of the Alfa Romeo brand and the Maserati plan. Also for this reason Cappellano does not update the data on investments intended for production in Italy, but assures: «We are working on a solution, our objective is to accelerate development and seize opportunities to increase efficiency and competitiveness. Whether this will happen through partnerships, or thanks to our engineering, we are still deciding, but the central themes are economies of scale and competitiveness in these areas too.”
The D and E segments, therefore the future programs for the relaunch or expansion of the model range for Alfa Romeo and Maserati, represent the weak point of the plan. Or, rather, the part where a clear vision is still missing and which, therefore, suffers from greater unknowns, which are reflected in the Made in Italy production, in fact the “natural” home of the two brands. The topic also concerns the question of production platforms: StellaOne represents the technological environment in which future models of segments B, C and partly D will be born – «with a cost saving estimated at around 20%» clarifies Cappellano -, but it is not yet clear whether the old architecture – Stla Large, originally assigned to Cassino – will be definitively archived and what could replace it.
Growth on the market, confirms Cappellano, will be driven by the two global brands of reference for Europe which are Peugeot and Fiat. If you look at the market share in Europe, Peugeot “dances” around 5% while Fiat stops at 2-2.5%. It is therefore clear that it will be necessary to push on the range of new products to expand the presence on the market of the historic brand which in any case at this stage, thanks to the driving force of Panda in Italy and Pandona in Europe, is leading the recovery phase of volumes in the Old Continent, with almost 30% more registrations in the first quarter of the year.
