FCA announced today that it will build a battery assembly center in Turin. The new "Battery Hub", this is the name of the project that will start in the Mirafiori district in the first part of the 2020, will allow FCA to add a new piece in its e-Mobility strategy that has seen it as a protagonist in recent months of important agreements on services related to electrification.
"The auto industry - comments Pietro Gorlier, COO of the EMEA Region of FCA - is profoundly changing and one of the main trends of change is linked to electrification. Thanks to the construction of the new Mirafiori battery assembly center, FCA accelerates the drive towards electrification by adding a new element to the "ecosystem" that starts from the supply chain to reach customer support. Today's announcement adds to the many recently signed partnerships in terms of recharging infrastructure, Vehicle to Grid services and those for customers of hybrid and full electric cars, from Italy to the rest of the world " .
A real battery assembly center will be created in a dedicated building, with potential expandability for future projects. The most advanced technologies will be used with modular and flexible processes, also with the use of collaborative robots in symbiosis with the operators.
The new "Battery Hub" will also host an area in which continuous training activities will be provided as well as a useful pilot process in the prototyping and testing phase. This initiative will allow FCA to respond quickly to the continuous evolution of the electricity sector. The new assembly center will also have the function of a technologically advanced center with electronic tests for quality control of the most strategic components that will be supplied by the leading leading manufacturers of electric mobility. Similar electronic controls, which will use the most sophisticated international techniques, will be made to manage the efficiency of the batteries after assembly. Comau will be a partner of the initiative thanks to its expertise in assembly.
In a first phase, the planned investment will be around 50 million.
Today's announcement follows a few months ago that of the new electric-powered 500 that will be produced at the Mirafiori plant starting from the second quarter of 2020. In particular, around 1.200 people will be dedicated to the production of the car and the production capacity of the line will be 80.000 units per year, with the possibility of being increased. A few weeks ago, FCA also announced that the new GranTurismo and GranCabrio will be the first Maserati models to adopt 100% electric solutions and that they will be produced at the Turin production center.
Today in the district of Turin - Mirafiori and its extension of Grugliasco - around 20.000 people work between production employees and related engineering and design activities, sales, financial services and spare parts, making it the largest FCA complex in the world.
Overall, finally, FCA will invest in the 2019-2021 plan for Italy over 5 billion, to support a substantial renewal in the product range, with the introduction of 13 models totally new or deeply renewed, and the launch of an offer electrification plan, with the inclusion in the 12 range of electric versions of new or existing models.