On the sidelines of the “Craftsmanship at the heart of Made in Italy” event a few days ago, the Minister of Business and Made in Italy Adolfo Urso spoke about the Chery issue in Italy: “We will announce when things are done, exactly as happened with microelectronics when everyone said we were behind, so it will happen with the car system – his words reported by Ansa – When there are agreements, as happened with Silicon box in the field of microelectronics, we will announce any agreements that there are in the automotive system”. But there will be no announcement of this type.
No Italy for Chery
The Chinese car manufacturer has in fact formalized the program to start activities related to its European car production in Spain, more precisely in Barcelona, in the industrial area of the Free Zone created in the 1950s with a non-customs status. In this sense, Chery decided to join forces with Ebro EV-Motors, a Spanish automotive company specialized in the design, production and marketing of vehicles and production, which in 2021 had taken over a Nissan plant located in that area. According to the first details of the agreement, a JV will be created between the two companies for the production of the first model, probably under the Omoda brandstarting from the fourth quarter of this year: there is talk of the return to work of hundreds of ex-Nissan workers who had been receiving a social salary since the closure of the factory.
Dongfeng gains share
The Italian government will therefore have to put its heart at rest: Chery has chosen Spain. But we know well that, again according to what Urso said, the list of car manufacturers interested in establishing part of their global production in Italy goes beyond the Chinese group. Let’s think about Dongfengwhich today remains in pole position: only yesterday did Minister Urso himself confirm the rumors that had circulated in the previous days regarding the first talks between the Italian government and the Asian company, there is talk of a production capacity of 100,000 vehicles every year in Italy by Dongfeng.
Urso’s words
Anyway, Dongfeng and Chery aside, it seems to be several car manufacturers are interested to settle in Italy, and not necessarily from East Asia. In this sense, Urso concluded: “In recent months, several car manufacturers, not only Asian ones, have spoken to our ministry about the possibility of making their production investments in our country considering it the most attractive precisely because of the context, for the automotive ecosystem”.
