Stellantis is preparing its plants for the mass electrification. The the Mirafiori plant in Turin, Italy is expected to become an EV hub.
According to Automotive News, in the coming years the company will assign the site to a new new electrified platform and Maserati sedans (Ghibli and Quattroporte), which will join the Fiat 500 electric in 2022-2024. Together with the currently produced Maserati Levante crossover, it will actually be the third electrified Maserati.
The production of new Ghibli and Quattroporte will be transferred from the nearby site of Grugliasco, which is expected to increase efficiency of the company.
Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares pointed out earlier this year the Italian plants are too costly (up to four times more than PSA’s plants in France or Spain when comparing similar models). The shift to electric cars must be then combined with overall improvement of productivity.
Stellantis is already busy improving the efficiency at the Melfi plant in southern Italy:
“In June, the automaker decided to reorganize output at the Melfi plant in southern Italy, its largest facility in the country, on a single enhanced line that will merge two existing ones with unchanged capacity. It will build four medium-segment EVs, for different brands, starting in 2024.”
A new investment is coming to the Termoli site, about 190 miles east of Rome, where Stellantis intends to build one of three lithium-ion cell battery manufacturing sites for the group. The first two will be in Germany and France under the Automotive Cells Company (ACC) battery joint venture.
We assume that with the info released at the Stellantis EV Day 2021 presentation in July, no one doubts that the group is shifting the business towards electric cars, but it will take time as it’s never easy to transform such big companies into something radically new.
