Fiat turns a corner

The departure of an iconic carmaker from Italy after more than a century should be a concern for the country.

Fiat, which also makes the iconic Alfa Romeo, Maserati and Ferrari marques, has merged with US-based Chrysler. Massimo Pinca / AP Photo

A hundred years is a long time to live in one city. If you are Fiat, the car company that has called Turin home for 115 years, it is several life-times; indeed the country we call Italy was unified less than 40 years before the company we call Fiat appeared. Now Fiat is moving its headquarters.

Over that century, Fiat’s cars have absorbed some of unexplainable essence of Italy. A company whose managers once ate gelato while strolling the streets of Turin will now walk the streets of Slough, a vibrant, if rather unlovely, English town a few kilometres west of London.

Fiat, which also makes the iconic Alfa Romeo, Maserati and Ferrari marques, has merged with US-based Chrysler, meaning its headquarters will be in London and it will be listed on the New York stock exchange.

For Italians, there is the concern of losing brands synonymous with Italy. One strategist remarked that Fiat is leaving because Italy had become “a peripheral place” – a sign of the times, perhaps, when a local company becomes truly global and transcends the country of its birth. But it’s also a wake-up call for a country that needs to do more to compete globally.

In a globalised world, big companies will go wherever they feel serves their business interests best. But even if this move is good for business, it feels as if Italy has lost something tangible.