During the weekend of the Imola GP, in the midst of Italian pride, news arrived of the 134 Fiat Topolinos seized in the port of Livorno because they had a sticker with the Italian tricolor on the side but were not Made in Italy.
And while the Italian flags are flying everywhere on the Imola circuit, the children who were victims of the floods sing the Mameli anthem, Domenicali is awarded the keys to the city and even the track curbs are all tricolor (beautiful, it must be said), just a few kilometers away the Financial Police and the Customs and Monopolies Agency accuse Stellantis of selling industrial products “with false signs”, as the cars had been produced in Morocco before being sent to Livorno.
Now two o’clock. Either you apply the “Zalone clause” (You don’t write Italy in vain) and ask for “a screwdriver and a ladder” to remove the Italian insignia from everything or you need deep reflection.
It seems like a joke but it isn’t because to get the Topolinos out of the judicial warehouse at the Leonardo Da Vinci terminals and from Cilp, the port workers undertaking company, and therefore release them, it was decided to “intervene on the seized vehicles with the removal of the small stickers subject to authorization from the Authorities”, as explained by a Stellantis spokeswoman. Just like in Zalone’s film.
The problem is that the application of the concept of origin linked only to the place of production would force us to review the concept of intellectual property in depth.
iPhones and iPads should be considered Chinese and not American, nothing to do with Silicon Valley. Same goes for many Tesla Model 3s and Ys and much of the auto industry.
Returning to Italy (excluding Ferrari, Maserati, Lamborghini and Pagani), there would remain a miserable choice of made in Italy: Panda (Pomigliano d’Arco), Alfa Romeo Giulia and Stelvio (Cassino), Tonale (Pomigliano d’Arco) and the Fiat 500X (Melfi). And then there is the problem of parts, of engines: up to what percentage of parts produced abroad is it bearable to consider a car assembled in Italy “Made in Italy”? The same goes for F1 too because the components of the cars come from every corner of the world.
But there are no possible rules here. I still remember when we went to visit the Nissan factory in England in 1986. The Bluebird was born there and to demonstrate that the car was truly all “made in England” they made us journalists find a Bluebird on the ground completely disassembled with every single piece numbered. On one side the English ones (obviously the majority), on the other the Japanese ones. Too bad that the Japanese piece “number 1” was the entire engine, considered like a screw… We journalists laughed, but the English Government took that crazy count at face value. A question – let’s say… – of sensitivity.
The point is that today on the other side of the ocean, no American has ever considered it a disgrace that their Jeep Compass or Renegade and Dodge Hornet are made in Italy given that the former are born in Pomigliano d’Arco and the the last one in Melfi.
So?
“The sticker in question on the Mickey Mouse – explains Stellantis – had the sole purpose of indicating the entrepreneurial origin of the product. In fact, the design of the new minicar, which has been a historic car for Fiat since 1936, was conceived and developed in Turin by a team of professionals from the FIAT Style Center of Stellantis Europe SpA, an Italian company.”
Credit must then be given to Stellantis who, as they said, “We, since the presentation of the new model, have always been clear in declaring that this is manufactured in Morocco. We therefore believe that we have operated in full compliance with the regulations, communicating in a transparent manner the country of production of Topolino, without any misleading intent towards consumers”. And in fact, on every car, from Chinese Teslas to Belgian Golfs, from Vietnamese BMWs to Polish Milans (sorry Junior), the place of production is clearly indicated.
But now – after the case of the Minister of Business and Made in Italy, Adolfo Urso who had contested the name of ‘Milano’ for the small SUV produced in Poland by the CEO of Alfa Romeo, Philippe Learnato – everything changes. We must decide what to do with our tricolor which – in the meantime – flies proudly in Imola.
#Imola #Italy #Fiat #Topolino