Italian Authorities Seize A Shipload Of Fiat Topolinos Because Of A Flag

Italy has seized 134 of the Moroccan-built baby EVs as part of its latest disagreement with Stellantis

20 May 2024

Stellantis – the multinational car-building conglomerate whose brands include Fiat, Lancia, Alfa Romeo and Maserati, A.K.A. almost the entire mass-market Italian car industry – is once again butting heads with the Italian government. Recently, we’ve seen Alfa Romeo change the name of its new Polish-built compact crossover from Milano to Junior to avoid the ire of the Italian industry minister, who claimed it was illegal for the name of an Italian city to appear on a car built outside the country.

It all stems from Italy’s desire to strengthen domestic car production, and now the government has turned its attention to the almost unbearably cute little Fiat Topolino EV. Technically a ‘quadricycle’ rather than a car, it’s based on the Citroen Ami, but gives it a coochie-coo retro makeover. It’s almost a guarantee that the more fashionable bits of Italy will be awash with these things by the summer – that is, if Fiat can get them sold in time.

Fiat Topolino detail, with the offending flag visible

Per Automotive News Europe, 134 Topolinos have been seized by Italian police in the port city of Livorno upon arrival from the plant in Morocco where they’re built. The issue is that the car features a teeny-tiny Italian flag on the front wings, and Italian law prevents the Tricolore from featuring on products not built in the country.

The law states that this “constitutes a fallacious indication” of the country of origin, even if it’s clearly indicated elsewhere on a product. This seems to be a more clear-cut breach of the rules than the Milano/Junior debacle, although according to Motor1, Fiat still maintains it was within the law, and added the flag to represent the car’s Turin-based development.

Nevertheless, it’s agreed to remove the flag from the 134 cars stuck in port, as well as presumably all future Italian-market Topolinos, to make them saleable in the country. While we’re sure this won’t affect the Topolino’s success, it further speaks of a pretty clear message that Italy is sending to its biggest car brands.

The first full sentence spoken by an infant Mike was a review of the ride quality of a Volvo 850. It was “Daddy’s car goes bumpy-bump on a bumpy road,” so would probably need proofreading a bit, but it was a start.