Italy’s antitrust authority fined a local automobile company €6 million after determining that vehicles originating from Chinese manufacturers including Chery Automobile Co were illegally mislabelled as Italian-made.
 
DR Automobiles has been promoting cars from Chery, BAIC Motor Corp and Anhui Jianghua Automobile Group, or JAC Motors, as Italian-made since at least December 2021, the agency said in a statement on its website. The cars are marketed under the DR and EVO brands after “final touches” are made in Italy, it said. 

The move extends a crackdown by the government of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni over vehicles marketed in Italy in recent months. In May, financial police seized dozens of Fiat Topolinos made in Morocco because they sported an Italian flag. Parent company Stellantis NV was also forced to rename a new Alfa Romeo after Rome took issue with the group’s plan to call the Polish-made SUV the Milano. 

DR, which is based in Macchia d’Isernia north of Naples, said it would appeal the ruling. Its vehicles are only 60-70% pre-assembled in China, a spokesman said by phone on Thursday, adding that it makes important changes to meet European regulations, for example with fuel systems. 

Partly building cars in Asia is common practice in the automotive sector and “has never been hidden from the public,” DR said. Its advertising “never intended to publicise the alleged complete manufacturing of cars in Italy.”

Meloni’s government has also clashed with Stellantis over plans to move production to lower-cost countries, as European governments press automakers to protect jobs. Last week, the European Union slapped tariffs of up to 48% on Chinese manufacturers of battery-electric vehicles, in a move meant to protect the industry from lower-cost models in a growing part of the market. 

One of the all-electric models DR sells, the DR 1.0 city car, is based on Chery’s eQ1, a popular model in its home country. Chery has taken over a former Nissan factory in Barcelona and aims to start producing EVs there by the end of this year.

  - Bloomberg