All the (obviously French) maneuvers of Stellantis on hydrogen
The joint venture between Stellantis and the two French companies Forvia and Michelin leads the group once again to invest in Hexagone, also because the hydrogen gigafactory has received funding from Paris
This time as Italians we cannot be too resentful if Carlos Tavares , for his experimental hydrogen project, preferred France to Italy. The 1 billion euro plan for the development of an innovative technology, in fact, in addition to being supported by the European Union, was desired, supported and financed by the French government as part of the Ipcei program (Important Project of Scientific Interest). Stellantis, moreover, has never made a secret of being ready to go where the conditions are most favorable to it.
WHO ARE TAVARES'S ADVENTURE COMPANIONS
SymphonHy, which promises to be a true center of technological and industrial excellence and already the largest integrated fuel cell production site in Europe, will be managed by Symbio, an equal joint venture between the Italian-French group and the French Forvia and Michelin.
We wrote about the first on the occasion of the cuts in Magneti Marelli, since some observers maintain that, after the merger with PSA, the new Franco-Italian reality favored Peugeot's historic suppliers, including the French Faurecia, today known precisely as Forvia a following the merger with the German Hella. It is the seventh group in the world in the components sector, with a turnover of over 25 billion, 150,000 employees in more than 40 countries.
Since 2021, Symbio has also been present in the United States, where it has a pilot plant in California which, in a first phase, is supplied by the Group's European factories. According to previous disclosures, Symbio is looking for the best conditions to build another fuel cell gigafactory in the United States.
THE FIRST STELLANTIS HYDROGEN CELL GIGAFACTORY
But, in the meantime, the Italian-French jv, with a lot of France inside and only a slice of Italy, ignites the European one. Located in Saint-Fons, in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region of France, the SymphonHy plant will produce 50,000 fuel cell modules to power the Stellantis group's commercial vehicles. The offer in this regard is currently limited to Peugeot e-Expert, Citroën e-Jumpy and Opel Vivaro-e vehicles.
But it seems clear that, following this investment, Stellantis' catalog of hydrogen cars will be progressively enriched. The 26,000 square meter site (destined to become 40,000 square meters in the plans of the three partners by 2026) includes the Group's headquarters, a production plant, an innovation hub and the Symbio Hydrogen Academy.
The current production capacity is 16 thousand cells per year and should reach 50 thousand in less than three years. Very large numbers, yet the workers in proportion will be quite few, around a thousand people including 450 engineers: 100 dedicated to innovation and around 20 doctorates who "will cover a wide range of disciplines (electrochemical engineering, chemistry, materials science , etc.), gathered in a single global innovation center", Stellantis reports .
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/smartcity/stellantis-idrogeno-francia/ on Wed, 06 Dec 2023 08:56:11 +0000.