“The money is not for us but for the Italians.” Tavares and Stellantis without shame

There are many ideas offered by the tragicomic performance of Carlos Tavares at the hearing of the Productive Activities Commissions of the Chamber and Industry of the Senate. The CEO of Stellantis did not provide …

"The money is not for us but for the Italians." Tavares and Stellantis without shame

There are many ideas offered by the tragicomic performance of Carlos Tavares at the hearing of the Productive Activities Commissions of the Chamber and Industry of the Senate. The CEO of Stellantis did not provide any concrete response, dragging his feet with the usual utterances, between the company having no intention of leaving Italy and the ambition to fight to maintain leadership in the Bel Paese. Nothing new, but above all no response to the concerns of politicians and workers. But there is a passage that cannot go unnoticed, it cannot go unpunished.

The shopping list of reasons for the flop of electric cars is quite long: from regulatory and cost uncertainty to competition from China, through too high figures and skyrocketing energy prices. But instead of adjusting the shot, perhaps taking a step back from the green obsession, Stellantis, or rather its CEO Tavares, has unleashed the house specialty: ask for helpi.e. money, euro, wheat. According to the Portuguese manager, electric cars are not sold in Italy “because they cost too much” so demand must be stimulated with incentives: “We are not asking for money for us, but we are asking you to give us help for your citizenswho in this way can purchase vehicles they can afford.” Yes, you understood correctly. Without shame.

Instead of presenting a development and investment plan in Italy, Tavares called for another welfare interventionnot too subtly citing occupational blackmail. A continuous request for assistance that leaves us rather perplexed, just think of the history. To obtain the loan from Italy, the then Fiat Chrysler had made a series of commitments: increase investments in the industrial plan up to 5.2 billion euros (with an additional 200 million for the Melfi plant), not relocate, maintain employment levels and not sell brands such as Maserati and Alfa Romeo. History teaches.

The CEO of Stellantis has unleashed the imperishable list of alibisexcluding any liability of the company for agreements not respected. And be careful: the production and employment numbers from a year ago are not the only reasons for concern. If the number of employees has decreased by over 11 thousand units and the historic minimum in production has been reached, we cannot fail to consider the absence of a visionevidenced by the stop at the Termoli gigafactory. Yet Tavares has the nerve to ask for “money not for Stellantis but for the citizens so that they can afford to buy these vehicles”. An unparalleled arrogance, but also the belief that whoever listens is stupid. Evidently for Tavares, making two stupid comments about competition from Beijing and the cost of energy is enough to calm the waters. But the manager made the wrong calculations.

The only commitment made by Tavares? One million customers. But be careful: the Italian state has to pay for those with incentives. An ingenious solution in some ways: the CEO of Stellantis wants to achieve results with other people’s money, eliminating his commitment. Why make things better when I can point the finger at bad, ugly politics? The lack of incentives is to blame. Obviously this is irony, because it is impossible to remain serious in the face of such arrogance. Our thoughts go to the workers of Stellantis, dealing with a particularly delicate moment and without any reassurance from the top management. Just think about that government and opposition are on the same side of the barricade: congratulations to Tavares for the feat.

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