MILAN: Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares said on Thursday the carmaker will need all of its Italian factories to hit its long-term production goal there, in conciliatory remarks that may ease tensions between the European carmaker and Rome.
Tavares reiterated a commitment agreed with the Italian government to boost the Fiat maker's output in the country to one million vehicles by the end of the decade, from around 750,000 vehicles last year.
His comments in a media briefing may ease fears about possible plant closures in Italy, in particular the Mirafiori complex in Turin, and Pomigliano, near Naples.
"To reach the one million goal ... we need all of our plants, which means, of course, there is a future for Pomigliano and Mirafiori," Tavares said after the carmaker released 2023 results with a pledge to increase its dividend and launch a share buyback programme.
The world's third largest automaker by revenues and the Italian government have engaged in a bitter war of words in the past month.
Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has accused Stellantis, the country's sole major automaker, of taking France's interests into consideration over Italian ones, and described the group's birth as an "alleged" merger which "actually disguised a French takeover."
Rome has though approved earlier this month a new incentive scheme for auto purchases, worth 950 million euros ($1 billion)for this year.
"We are so grateful to the Italian government," Tavares said, adding that Stellantis' calculations showed incentives "automatically" add 20,000 vehicles to Italy's annual automotive production.
Stellantis' brands include Fiat, Jeep, Citroen and Alfa Romeo. -- Reuters