The Italian Melfi factory will welcome five new models from 2025
- While Dongfeng announced that it would build an assembly plant in Italy which will begin operations before 2030, the Stellantis group announced that it planned to develop the production of its models in Italy by notably implementing five new models in its Melfi factory, located in southern Italy. The Italian government had in fact expressed reservations regarding the announcement of the manufacturing of the Jeep Avenger, Fiat 600 and Alfa-Romeo Junior in Poland (on the Tichy site) although according to it these models could have been manufactured in Italy. The announcement of the production of the new Fiat Grande Panda in Serbia was also misunderstood by the Italian government.
- The Stellantis group has therefore issued two announcements, the first concerning existing models, namely the electric Fiat 500 and the hybrid Jeep Compass, which will continue to be manufactured in Italy, the first on the Mirafiori site and the second on the site of Melfi. A hybrid version will support the electric Fiat 500 whose sales are stagnating.
- The second announcement concerning future models seems more interesting insofar as it concerns four currently unknown models which will be produced on the Melfi site, most of them being 100% electric D-segment SUVs: an Opel version ( perhaps called Manta), a Lancia version (perhaps called Aurélia), a DS version (perhaps called DS8) and another shorter DS version (perhaps called DS5). These four models launched in 2025 and 2026 will be added to the new generation of Jeep Compass expected in 2025. They will all be equipped with the STLA Medium platform. In return, the Fiat 500X and Jeep Renegade produced in Melfi will be discontinued at the end of 2024 and the end of 2025 respectively.