Italy would have invited BYD and Chery to build car factories in Italy
The Meloni government, with a decision taken after long reflection, decided at the end of 2023 not to renew the agreement with China relating to participation in the "Silk Road", or "Belt and Road" initiative. Italy was the only large Western country to have joined the initiative, which was supposed to facilitate the flow of Chinese investments, and its withdrawal, however, had diplomatic repercussions.
Yet diplomatic relations continued. An important bilateral Italy-China summit will be held in Verona on 11 and 12 April . What is the state of economic and industrial relations between Italy and China? Can there be any positive developments in this sector?
The newspaper SCMP , a semi-independent newspaper, because it is based in Hong Kong, but which nevertheless takes up the positions of the Chinese government quite correctly, has dedicated ample space to relations with Italy. After having extensively reported the visit of the Italian ambassador Massimo Ambrosetti to Hong Kong, on the occasion of a performance by the Ballet Company of the Teatro alla Scala in Milan, the Chinese media informs us of something that, in Italy, has not been publicized :
Ambrosetti said the bilateral partnership covers relations in the fields of vehicle manufacturing, agriculture, pharmaceuticals, culture, people-to-people ties, education, sports and more.
It is reported that the Italian government has invited Chinese automakers BYD and Chery to build plants in Italy.
Stop everyone, then the Italian government would have invited the Chinese car manufacturers Chery and BYD to build plants in Italy. This, if confirmed by national sources, would be very relevant news not only for Italy, but for the entire EU, and for a series of reasons:
- from a national point of view it would mark an unexpected vitality of the Meloni government in relations with Beijing;
- it would finally mark a separation from the subservience of the Stellantis group for the national car sector;
- it would be a very hard blow to the French and German car manufacturers because they would find their competitor well anchored in Europe, within the borders of the EU, and at this point the Commission's entire plan to sanction cars imported from China for unfair competition would collapse, given that BYD or Chery would be produced in the EU.
Obviously we don't know anything else on this front, but the news of the possible construction of Leapmotor electric cars in Turin would be an ad hoc move to anticipate the possible entry of Chinese competitors. With the difference that, unlike Stellantis, here they would not just produce a low-end model, but there would be the possibility of producing an entire range of cars, even those that scare the French-German industrial masses the most. If China then used some Italian components it would be ideal.
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The article Italy would have invited BYD and Chery to build car factories in Italy comes from Scenari Economici .
This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/litalia-avrebbe-invitato-byd-e-chery-a-costruire-fabbriche-dauto-in-italia/ on Sun, 24 Mar 2024 12:19:12 +0000.