Italian fiscal police confiscate 134 Fiat Topolino cars

The Italian fiscal police confiscated 134 imported Fiat Topolino electric microcars produced in Morocco at the port of Livorno. The reason? A small sticker with the colours of the Italian flag.

Image: Fiat

According to officials, the latter could give a false impression of the vehicles’ origin. Initially, a local media outlet from Livorno reported the incident, but a spokesperson for Stellantis Italia later confirmed it to Reuters. However, no corresponding sticker can be seen on the press images of the EV that have been published so far.

“The sole purpose of the sticker was to indicate the entrepreneurial origin of the product,” the spokesperson said, adding that the group believed it had fully complied with the rules. The Topolino was designed in Italy by Fiat’s Centro Stile design studio. The spokesperson said the decision to produce the new Topolino in Morocco was made when the new model was announced. Now, the company wants to remove the small stickers, provided authorities give them the go-ahead.

It is not the first time that Italy’s right-wing populist government has clashed with the multinational Stellantis Group because of a law against “Italian-sounding” products that are not manufactured in Italy. The Stellantis brand Alfa Romeo recently changed the name of its new ‘Milano’ model, which is also available as a BEV, to ‘Junior’ because the Italian government had criticised the choice of the Italian name for the model manufactured in Poland.

reuters.com

2 Comments

about „Italian fiscal police confiscate 134 Fiat Topolino cars“
Donald McMahan
21.05.2024 um 20:47
So Alfa Romeo Junior is a less Italian sounding name than Alfa Romeo Milano....has the Italian government sorted out all of the country's other problems?
Moisés Tiago Bento Pereira
22.05.2024 um 16:49
Yes, specially of the sweat houses on Sicilia that use Chinese explored workers to manufacture dresses for big fashion, made in Italy, of course...

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