Italy working to bring in another carmaker besides Stellantis

ROME (Reuters) -Italy has been working for months to attract another carmaker to the country alongside Fiat-owner Stellantis, Industry Minister Adolfo Urso said on Wednesday.

Urso's comments follow a clash between Rome's rightist government led by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Stellantis over production levels in Italy.

In December, Stellantis' strongest brand in the country, Fiat, has not been Italy's best-selling brand for the first time in almost a century, losing the title to Volkswagen.

A Stellantis spokesperson noted that the Franco-Italian carmaker was the undisputed leader in 2023 Italian registrations among passenger cars and commercial vehicles with a share of 33.8%, more than double compared to the 15.3% recorded by its German competitor.

The decline in December did not affect the market leadership in the slightest, the spokesperson added.

Rome is in talks with Stellantis over a long-term plan for its auto sector, which includes a target to boost the carmaker's annual output in Italy to one million vehicles from about 750,000 last year.

Earlier this month, the government launched a new vehicle subsidy scheme worth 950 million euros ($1 billion) for this year. Urso has said the government has a financial endowment of around 6 billion euros to support domestic production and incentivise consumption in 2025 and the following years.

"If there is no increase in production, which has fallen dramatically in recent years, the automotive fund of around 6 billion euros will be used from next year to support new production facilities, to strengthen components and, of course, to support the establishment of another car manufacturer," Urso told a parliamentary hearing.

It is "a plan we want to pursue and on which we have been working for several months with international talks," he added.

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(Reporting by Angelo AmanteWriting by Gianluca SemeraroEditing by Cristina Carlevaro, Mark Potter and Aurora Ellis)