The so-called "eco-tax" inserted in the budget law in article 1031 gave its first effect, not on the environment but on FCA's three-year investment plan of 5 billion for Italy. On Monday, FCA CEO Manley announced from the Detroit auto show that the plan will be revised because the reference scenario has changed.
FCA in Italy employs over 80 people with an associated industry that reaches 156 workers and a driving impact on the national GDP with a turnover of 46 billion euros.
The measure put in place by the government, the so-called "ecotax", which will start on March 1, as it is written, is an own goal because it will not benefit the environment and health but will favor foreign producers, putting our industry in crisis automotive industry and with it over 100 jobs. Among the models most affected by the Ecotax is the Panda 12 Easy, the best-selling model in our country last year with 124 new registrations, produced in Pomigliano and which will be burdened with a 300 euro Ecotax (see car model table).
The Government must get out of this policy made only of commercials. In a future vision of sustainable mobility, making electric cars is the simplest thing. The most difficult thing, and in which substantial investments are needed, are the infrastructures and the ecosystem to make them work: disposing of battery cells, creating a capillary network for recharging, rethinking and reorganizing the industrial chain and that of maintenance and services. All aspects, the latter, fundamental for making electric mobility work and efficient. On all these points, our country is at zero. Other countries will arrive earlier because they started building infrastructure first and then setting targets.
The technological transition we are facing will be revolutionary, and we cannot fail, we need to think about the medium/long term and not act by looking at the next elections. The transition to electricity must be managed intelligently by investing to ensure employment and sustainable mobility for health and the environment.
Like Fim, after having made an important contribution with the agreements signed to relaunch the car industry in our country, we have been pressing manufacturers for some time on the need to accelerate the transition to electric power: now that we had reached an agreement, FCA and the workers, the government is risking blowing everything up. It takes at least 20 months to get the first results on the new hybrid and electric models. The 5 billion euro plan developed by FCA for the next quarter envisages the construction and construction of 3 models (hybrid and electric) over the next 9 years, all built in our country. It would have been enough to read that Plan to understand how to better calibrate the provision. At the end of the year, the hybrid Jeep Renegade, Compass, FCA Panda and the full electric 500 will be ready in a year and a half. You don't need economic patriotism but you don't need self-harm either.
Among other things, since the measure was announced, many consumers in uncertainty have postponed the purchase of the car subtracting resources useful for industry and work.
If the government really wants to do good for the country, it must immediately retrace its steps and review the provision and think of a targeted investment plan for the necessary infrastructure linked to technological change which is destined to revolutionize the world of individual mobility and on which we cannot afford, as the seventh industrialized country in the world, to stand out giving gifts to other countries. In this way there is the risk of giving work and industry to others. If there is a sovereignty to be supported, it is the one relating to the end of the mortification of one's industrial sovereignty which, on the other hand, is being resolved at the moment, just look at the penalty tables in "foreigners first". Just at a time when we convinced FCA to invest 5 billion euros in the electric car.
