Alfa Romeo revealed the Milano last week; an electric crossover with a weird new grille — all to be built in Poland. This angered Italian authorities, who declared the name Milano too “Italian sounding” to be built anywhere but Italy, based on laws written to protect cheese. The Italian government wanted the Milano to be built domestically, so Alfa acquiesced — and changed the car’s name.
Now, rather than the Milano, the Polish-built Alfa will be called the Junior. Presumably, the name is meant to honor upstanding Italian-American Corrado Soprano. Alfa Romeo published a press release about the change, which includes some choice quotes:
During one of the most important weeks for the future of Alfa Romeo, an Italian government official declared that the use of the name Milano – chosen by the brand for its recently unveiled new compact sports car – is banned by law.
Despite Alfa Romeo believing that the name meets all legal requirements, and that there are issues much more important than the name of a new car, Alfa Romeo has decided to change it from Milano to Junior in the spirit of promoting mutual understanding.
…
The Alfa Romeo team would like to thank the public for the positive feedback, the Italian dealer network for their support, journalists for the enormous media attention given to the new car and the Italian government for the free publicity brought on by this debate.
The release takes a very “Did you really have nothing better to do?” tone towards the Italian government’s intervention and forced renaming of the car, but I happen to think the Meloni administration knew exactly what it was doing. Had Alfa Romeo stuck to its guns on the name, and decided the new car must be called Milano, the courts may well have been able to force its production back to Italy — a win for a government concerned with transportation in general, and Stellantis specifically. Take these couple lines from Reuters back in February:
“We are always willing and open (to help) with whatever might produce jobs in Italy, but clearly if people think that producing in other countries where there is a lower production cost is better, I can’t say anything,” Meloni said.
Looks like they found a way to say something, eh?