Tesla in negotiations with the Government for a site for vans and trucks

According to some industrial sources, the Ministry of Business and Made in Italy (Mimit) in recent weeks has actually deepened the dialogue with a possible new automotive manufacturer, but the news is that the most serious contacts would be with Elon Musk’s Tesla for a possible production of electric trucks and/or vans, a line partly still in planning, and therefore not of cars.

The discussions have been ongoing since last summer, in parallel with those started with three Chinese manufacturers, again for possible production investments in the electric sector: BYD, Great Wall Motors and Chery Automobile. With the latter, in particular, the dialogue has entered a more advanced stage in the last month after a series of inspections in former industrial areas of the South proposed by Mimit officials as possible locations.

The interpretations on all these ongoing surveys are not unambiguous. In this delicate phase, with the Government negotiating with Stellantis to increase production in Italy to 1 million vehicles (including cars and commercial vehicles), every indiscretion lends itself to a double meaning. The bogeyman of Chinese production in Italy, which as said by Tavares in an interview with Il Sole 24 Ore could turn into a mere assembly with suppliers made in China, may indirectly be an element at the negotiating table with Stellantis but from a geopolitical perspective industrial also with Tesla itself, an American manufacturer engaged with its Chinese competitors in an exciting head-to-head battle over the supremacy of electric vehicles.

Urso “With incentives we expect an increase in car production in Italy”

Fragmented market risk

For his part, the owner of Mimit, Adolfo Urso, responded to the doubts expressed by Tavares about the risk that a new producer in Italy (the reference was to Chinese competitors) could ultimately only fragment the market without bringing real increases in production. For Urso, Italian monoproduction remains a negative anomaly, in a scenario which sees for example Germany with six car producers (plus one for vans), France with 4, Spain with 7, the Czech Republic with 3, Hungary with 4 destined to reach 5 with Byd. The coexistence of at least two manufacturers, the minister highlighted in February in a hearing in the Chamber, is the best way to guarantee the stability of the national components sector, already strongly affected by the reduction of components in electric models compared to those with combustion engines.

The Ministry of Business, which from 2 April will start meetings on the future of the individual Stellantis production plants, has set itself an overall objective: 1.3 million vehicles to be produced in Italy, of which 1 million from the group’s plants in Tavares and 300 thousand from a new producer, obviously provided that the tactic turns into an agreement.