Honorable presidents, honorable deputies and senators, good afternoon to everyone. Thank you President Gusmeroli for what you said and thank you President De Carlo for the opportunity to be heard by both branches of parliament for a discussion on the situation of the automotive sector in Italy and in Europe and for the opportunity to directly illustrate our commitment.
of Stellantis in our country. I am present with my colleagues Jean-Philippe Imparato, head of the Europe region, Antonella Bruno, who leads our commercial activities in Italy, Santo Ficili, CEO of Alfa Romeo and Maserati, and Monica Genovese, head of purchasing for the entire powertrain division. When I received the invitation from President Gusmeroli, I confirmed my availability for the discussion, but in due respect of the path outlined by the same Parliament, in particular the Chamber of Deputies through the two motions approved on October 16, 2024, had committed the government to concluding the dialogue table with Stellantis and the other components of the automotive supply chain by the end of the year. The table promoted by the Ministry of Enterprises and Made in Italy actually reached its conclusive synthesis last December 17, in the presence of Minister Calderone, Minister Giorgetti and Minister Urso, as well as the governors of the regions where our plants are located, the trade unions, ANFIA, and some of my colleagues mentioned earlier.
And on the basis of the conclusion of this process, which we had set with President Gusmeroli, today's hearing. I am intervening here as the person responsible for the operational management of Stellantis, a role I received from the Board of Directors on December 2, 2024, following the resignation of Carlos Tavares, whose succession is proceeding according to the established timescales and the new CEO of Stellantis will be announced, as we have indicated, within the first half of this year. We prepared for today's hearing with great attention because for us Italy plays a central role.
Last July 11, we celebrated at Lingotto in Turin the 125 years of activity, an exceptional milestone for a startup born in 1899, as President Gusmeroli recalled. Since then, we have developed by facing the challenges of the times without forgetting our roots but always looking to the future. Italy for Fiat and Fiat for Italy have represented and still mean much: industry, work, development, innovation, but also solidarity, culture, responsibility and social progress. Of this long history, the history of Fiat that has now become Stellantis, we are, I personally, very proud.
It is not a given fact, considering that less than 1% of companies founded at the beginning of the twentieth century are still alive. And if in a moment I will talk to you about investments, new models and advanced technologies, it means that this strength, this will to progress and the courage to look to the future are always present. As requested by the subject of today's hearing, I will dedicate particular attention to Italy. I will do so by embracing the last years of our history, the ones I have lived personally, and above all, I will share current and future perspectives without neglecting the broader context and the historical moment in which we operate.
I will articulate my report in three parts. The first will highlight the positive contribution that an industrial group like Fiat, FCA now Stellantis, has brought to our country. The second will illustrate the actions announced last December 17, reaffirming and confirming the points of the table with MIMIT. The third will share the perspective of the automotive sector not only in Italy but also in Europe and the world. First part: I began to hold positions of responsibility in Fiat in 2004 as vice president. I had joined the board of directors in 1997. I remember well what the situation was in those years and especially the fight to ensure our survival, the survival of Fiat. In 2003, when my grandfather Gianni Agnelli died, Fiat Auto was turning over 20 billion euros and losing two, with its four brands selling 1.7 million vehicles, almost half in Italy, and was out of the top 10 of world manufacturers.
Many spoke in 2004 of Fiat as a company finished, failed, to be nationalized. Despite the dramatic situation, my family took on the responsibility of defending the company and those who worked there by investing new resources and laying the foundations for the relaunch. Thanks to the work of many people at Fiat and with Sergio Marchionne, we managed to heal the company and above all to give it a leading role in the world automotive landscape. In the most difficult moments of the recent history we have traversed, such as the international financial crisis of 2008 and the pandemic crisis of COVID-19 in 2020, Fiat became larger, obtaining those economies of scale that have always been the goal of car manufacturers to survive.
The two epochal consolidation operations we carried out allowed us not only to remain alive but above all to open new perspectives, first with Chrysler and then with PSA, which led to the creation of Stellantis. Today, Stellantis is the fourth manufacturer in the world, it is profitable and turns over 157 billion. With our 14 brands, we sell 5.5 million vehicles, less than half in Europe. Twenty years ago, I struggled for survival; today, we are among the first manufacturers in the world. Of this extraordinary development path, Italy and the Italians have had great merit, and to the whole country goes our gratitude. But it is often asked: what benefits does Stellantis bring to Italy?
If Stellantis did not exist today, we would not be here because the Italian car would have disappeared long ago, like computing after Olivetti or chemicals after Montedison. In the last 20 years, the domestic market has fallen by 30%, while employment has reduced by about 20%. This means that the company has defended production and employment in the country's plants thanks to the export of Italian brands, as well as the Jeeps produced in Basilicata, the Dodges in Campania, the Citroen, Opel and Peugeot vans in Abruzzo, and more recently the DS in Melfi. We wanted to quantify the contribution given by the company to the country by asking the Luiss Guido Carli University to carry out an independent study on the group's history from 2004 to 2023.
Not having the data for 2024 yet, these are the years I have lived personally. What emerges is that the positive contribution to the growth of the Italian economy has never diminished. The study will be presented publicly in the coming weeks, and you can read an extract that will be made available today. From 2004 to 2023, Stellantis produced in Italy 16.7 million cars and commercial vehicles for a total production value of almost 700 billion euros. Considering the effects on the supply chain and the repercussions on family consumption, the total value of production in Italy over the last 20 years rises to 1,700 billion euros with an added value of 417 billion. For every euro of value created by Stellantis, nine are generated in the rest of the Italian economy.
An even more important fact if we consider the contribution that our industrial poles have given and still give to the South, bringing employment, investment, entrepreneurial development and infrastructural growth. The Italian car has united our country, reducing gaps and creating opportunities, just like the Autostrada del Sole, which last year celebrated 60 years. In these 20 years, 38.9 billion in salaries have been paid net of social contributions. Regarding the use of the Cassa Integrazione, the cumulative balance between what the company has paid and what workers have received is negative for 0.6 billion. It should be remembered that these resources do not go to the company but to those who work and their families.
Without this unique tool in Italy, many jobs would have been lost, as has happened in other countries where we operate. Not only in these 20 years has the company paid 14 billion in taxes to the Treasury. If we also consider the revenue related to VAT and taxes paid on behalf of employees, this value rises to 32.2 billion. The expenditure for investments and R&D in Italy over these 20 years has been 53 billion, compared to public contributions of 1 billion, a ratio of 50 to 1.
I would like to add a very important piece of data: Stellantis in 2024 was the group that filed the most industrial patents in Italy. Each patent is not just a number but a step forward in the technological innovation of the country. This heritage of ideas and solutions strengthens the competitiveness of Italian industry, creates opportunities for our supply chain and contributes to keeping our knowledge at the forefront in a sector in full transformation. These data tell us that Italy and Fiat, today Stellantis, have grown together. The positive impact of the company has not only concerned the economic aspect but also the social one. Let's take the field of training, an area in which we have always been committed since the times of the founder, Senator Giovanni Agnelli.
Many remember the Fiat apprentice schools were a fundamental resource for the dissemination of knowledge related to mechanics and manufacturing in Italy. Still today, we continue to commit to education by collaborating with schools, technical institutes and universities, as demonstrated, for example, by the agreement with the Polytechnic of Turin, started in 1999 on the occasion of our Centennial and since then renewed and expanded several times. Just in these days, speaking with the trade unions, the importance of what we do on training is reiterated by them as essential to continue building together. It is precisely the importance we attribute to education that extends beyond the company's boundaries, creating benefits for all society.
I will mention two initiatives above all: the Hop project realized with CERN, the world's largest particle research center, and with the National Institute of Nuclear Physics. The project has involved so far 40,000 students from Italian middle schools with the aim of bringing them closer to physics. I also want to mention the project we are implementing in collaboration with the Salesians. The initiative focuses on the transition to adult life for people with disabilities, starting with work. These are just some examples of the activities we carry out in the field of education. The theme is particularly dear to me and my family, so much so that we have dedicated the exclusive commitment of the Agnelli Foundation to it, creating concrete projects and research activities to support the Italian public school system at all levels, from kindergarten to university.
I hope that from today and with today, the balance of give and take between the country and the company is no longer a divisive issue but an opportunity to continue this virtuous path together, which has lasted for more than 125 years, proudly with Italy. I would now like to move on to the second part. Jean-Philippe, with our colleagues, last December 17 at MIMIT described our commitment in Italy related to the Italian plants. On that occasion, we reaffirmed and confirmed the centrality of our country, of Italy, in which for the current year we are spending about 2 billion euros in investments and 6 billion euros in purchases from Italian suppliers.
Since its birth in January 2021, Stellantis has purchased services and components from the Italian automotive supply chain for a value of 24 billion euros, which will become 30 by the end of 2025. These resources spent in Italy demonstrate the importance of the link with the Italian supply chain, an excellence that has accompanied us around the world and has grown together with us. Monica, who is here, is organizing with colleagues from purchasing right here in Turin in early April a meeting with all our Italian and European suppliers precisely to talk about the opportunities to continue working together. At the Stellantis table, we made commitments towards all actors in the auto sector, and we are fulfilling these commitments punctually.
I would like to focus on one of the cornerstones and would ask if there is the slide. Thank you. We try to work and have invested in these multi-energy platforms. These multi-energy platforms allow us to make cars with all the different technologies that can go from thermal engines, hybrid, electric. On these platforms, which are the skeleton, the structure of a car, we have the possibility to add the components, and the great flexibility that we have managed to achieve is that on these various platforms we can make different models from different brands. This great flexibility that allows us to cover a wider market and also more varied customer demands is one of the great strengths we believe we have and that we have dedicated to Italy.
And now I will enter into the details of what we want to do in Italy, but before doing so, if you look at the Stella Medium platform, for example, which we have at Melfi, on that platform we will make seven different products. Of these seven different products, we will do it with three brands: the Jeep brand, the DS brand, the Lancia brand, and out of seven products, five will be with non-Italian brands produced in Basilicata. And of these products, we will also have versions, both fully electric and hybrid. Perhaps I spoke too much as an engineer; now let's enter into what is concrete in our work that we are carrying out here in Italy. The second slide gives you an idea, just visually shows you what is the activity that we have in Italy from north to south.
Let's start from Pomigliano. We have decided to extend the current production of the Panda hybrid, which we affectionately call the Pandina, followed by the new generation of the same model. We are proud to recall that this year in the months of January and February 2025, the Pandina was chosen by over 25,400 customers and has a market share of 10%, which is higher than any brand in Italy. This demonstrates not only the affection that Italians have for the Pandina but also the great commercial capacity of Antonella and her team, whom I would like to thank. Always in the Gianbattista Vico plant, I remind you that the Gianbattista Vico plant was born when we decided to bring the Panda from Poland to Italy, and on that occasion we made a large investment to equip our plant with the most cutting-edge technologies.
And there we would like to install the new Stella Small platform, thanks to which the production of two compact models is planned starting from 2028. In Melfi, as I reminded you, we have the Stella Medium platform. This year we launch the DS number 8. We are preparing the Jeep Compass, both electric and hybrid, and in the Lucanian plant in 2026, the new Lancia gamma and the new DS number 7 will also come out. In Cassino, where we are installing the Stella Large platform, in addition to the current production of the Maserati Grecale and the Alfa Romeo Giulia and Stelvio, the new generations of Alfa Romeo Stelvio, which we will present at the end of this year, and Giulia in 2026 will be produced.
As for Mirafiori, its future does not only involve the production of the current Fiat 500 electric, which was what we had hypothesized when we moved the 500 from Poland to Italy. In Turin, we were with Jean-Philippe and colleagues, with the bishop of our city, visiting Mirafiori, and he was able to see how much desire there is for this product that is transforming, and we are working on the new 500 hybrid, and everyone is putting in an enormous commitment so that the start of production can take place this November. The 500 hybrid will ensure an increase in production volumes in line with market requests for this type of segment, and this as I told you before, we saw with the Panda hybrid, and Antonella and colleagues cannot wait to have the 500 for our customers.
Always in Mirafiori, an important production site not only for the most iconic Fiat car, the 500, but also for electrified gearboxes, with an installed production capacity of 600,000 units, which allows us today to equip all the hybrid engines of the many models produced in our plants in Europe. It means that from Mirafiori we send gearboxes, for example, to Germany at Rüsselsheim for Opel, in France at Sochaux for Peugeot, or in Spain at Zaragoza where we produce both Peugeots and Opels. We are advancing this technology, and if one looks at the next generation, we are talking about emissions under 100 grams of CO2 per km, which is a 20% reduction compared to today's hybrid engines.
Regarding gearbox production, we have started work for the installation of a production line in the Termoli plant in Molise for current and future hybrid cars. As you know, Stellantis is a minority shareholder in a company that produces batteries and is evaluating the construction of a gigafactory in Termoli based on the market and various competitiveness factors. While waiting for ACC to make its plan known, we have moved in advance by complementing the production of thermal engines with gearboxes for hybrid cars. A special reference goes to the Attessa plant in Abruzzo. It was the first partnership started with the PSA group back in 1981, the seed of what today is the Stellantis group. In these over 40 years, we have produced 7.5 million vehicles and it represents one of the group's excellences worldwide.
Today, the Abruzzo site produces the entire range of large commercial vehicles for the Fiat, Peugeot, Opel and Citroen brands. We export to 75 countries, over 80% of our production. Just to give you an idea of the complexity that our colleagues have to manage, we have more or less 600,000 different types of commercial vehicles, one of the very important applications being, for example, campers. We are market leaders in Europe in campers, 60% of the market, and we have consecutively won in Germany, which is the largest and most difficult market, with the Ducato, the best camper of the year. So, this is an extremely important plant for us in Italy and of global relevance. Finally, we are working on the future of Maserati, which is indissolubly linked to Italy, to Modena, and to the Motor Valley.
Santo, who is here and who is also working as head of Alfa Romeo, we were together on Monday in France where all records were beaten with the sale of the Alfa Romeo Junior, which did more than 64%, and he is working on Maserati. Obviously, Maserati, Alfa Romeo, like all our brands linked to exports outside the European market, will also have to take into account what will happen with tariff policy. 2025, as we have clearly stated at the MIMIT table, will be another difficult year. The Italian market in the first two months is contracting by 7% compared to the same period last year. In 2026, we foresee an increase in production thanks to the launch of 10 new product updates in the Italian plants we talked about earlier, whose production levels will depend on the market and external factors like tariffs. In a moment of persistent difficulty for the automotive sector in Europe, we continue to invest in Italy, in Turin and in the future. Turin has been for just over a year the headquarters of the first circular economy center of the group, thus reaffirming its leadership in this sector. Turin hosts the Battery Technology Center, currently the only center in the world of the group to design, develop and test battery packs, modules, cells, high-voltage components that will power the future vehicles of all our brands. The center is among the largest in the European automotive industry. Furthermore, Turin has global responsibility for advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) and the development of the new Stella AutoDrive platform, which is our autonomous driving system for all vehicles in the world. Stellantis is proceeding with what it committed to implement last December 17. Today we reiterate our commitment in Italy and for Italy with passion, responsibility and professionalism, but above all because we believe in it. We are convinced that it can be done for Italy, it can be done with Italy, as we have always done. Third part is the last. I would like to address this last part of my report by describing to you the challenges of the automotive sector not only in Italy but also in Europe and in the rest of the world. Honorable presidents, honorable deputies and senators, I thank you also on behalf of my colleagues for your attention and we are ready to answer your questions. Thank you.
