The plant was closed by Fiat on November 24th of this year and sold to investor Massimo Di Risio for the token amount of one euro. Di Risio is one of Italy's largest auto dealers and plans on using the factory to assemble four Chery models shipped from China as complete knock-down kits as early as late next year. The Cherys would initially be sold on the Italian market but exports to other European countries would soon follow.
For this and other reasons, Di Risio is reportedly in financial trouble and his operations are largely held up by miscellaneous grants and loans from the Italian government.
Di Risio claims that the problems are not serious and is convinced that he will reach his goal of eventually producing 65,000 DR-badged Cherys a year in Termini Imerese.
References
1.'Italian dealer's plan...' view
2.'Fiat : Termini, c'est...' view
