Why Stellantis chose Termoli for the battery gigafactory. Bertone’s analysis
According to car journalist Ugo Bertone, Stellantis' choice to build the gigafactory in Termoli and not in Mirafiori is consistent with the concentration of Fiat production in central and southern Italy. Here because
Stellantis' decision to build its third battery gigafactory in Europe in Termoli and not in Melfi or – above all – in Mirafiori was met with some surprise. In reality, the choice to install the plant in Molise rather than in the more famous plants in Basilicata and Piedmont, given as favorites, follows a logic “very easy to understand, with hindsight”. To explain it to Start Magazine is Ugo Bertone, a journalist from Turin who worked for years first at Sole 24 Ore and then at La Stampa, former director of the Stock Exchange and Finance and now a columnist for various newspapers.
THE FIRST REASON: THE TYPE OF ESTABLISHMENT
The reasons behind the choice of Termoli, says Bertone, are two. “The first is that, both in the United Kingdom and in the United States and in Germany, for the creation of hubs to build batteries, plants have been used that until now have produced thermal engines”: the Termoli site also manufactures conventional engines. "The transition from plants of this type" to components for electric mobility is "easier," he says.
THE SECOND REASON: THE GEOGRAPHICAL POSITION
“For the second reason, however, we need to see the geographical map. By now the ex-FIAT ”, explains the former special correspondent of the newspaper La Stampa,“ is a company that in Italy is concentrated in the center-south. And a key choice of those who produce the batteries seems to be to position themselves a short distance from the centers of use ”of these devices.
In this sense, then, “Termoli is fine because it can cover this area, it is part of the productive fabric” of the center-south that revolves around the automotive sector and can therefore integrate with the gigafactory .
WHY NOT MIRAFIORI
Building a battery gigafactory in northern Italy, perhaps in the Mirafiori complex, on the contrary, would have proved inconvenient for Stellantis. "If Stellantis needs to send 20,000 pieces to Mirafiori, it can do it very well from French warehouses". The company will also build a battery factory in Douvrin in France.
“It is more important”, Bertone specifies, “to build a business cycle around FIAT productions now concentrated in the center-south. And if there is ever a battery problem around Mirafiori, which is concentrated on the Maserati, a particular model, it won't take long to get them from France ”.
“At this moment it is difficult to know how many electric 500s will sell” – he refers to the electric FIAT 500e produced in Mirafiori – “and how many batteries will be needed”.
In Mirafiori then, continues the journalist, "there is a real problem, because the plant is immense and now produces 15-20 percent" of its capacity. “I don't think the electric 500 can go that far”.
THE SHIFT OF CENTER OF STELLANTIS
Bertone thinks that the prediction mistake made by the newspapers on the site that would host the Stellantis gigafactory is interesting and significant.
“It will happen more and more often”, he explains, “that the rumors about Stellantis run the risk of being wrong. Because it is a society in which decisions are made between Paris and Holland, where Elkann certainly has his say but there is no longer an Italian or Turin centrality ”. And so, even the newspapers "guess but less and less, because the center of gravity is different".
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/smartcity/gigafactory-batterie-stellantis-termoli-perche/ on Fri, 09 Jul 2021 13:44:15 +0000.