European battery manufacturer, Italvolt, which is building one of Europe’s largest Gigafactories and overseeing the largest industrial investment in Italy in modern times, has partnered with ABB to help deliver the facility.
This announcement will be a key step in delivering its Gigafactory that will boost the area’s economy in employing up to 10,000 people.
The facility in Scarmagno, Northern Italy, will see the production and storage of lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles, with a planned capacity of 45 GWh for about 550,000 electric vehicles per year, with ABB for Front End Engineering and Design (FEED).
The Italvolt and ABB partnership agreement will also jointly explore how automation, electrification and digitalization solutions can fast-track production processes for battery manufacturing. A key goal at the site, which is designed by Pininfarina, is to contribute to the green industrialization by becoming one of the main suppliers of green batteries in Europe and establishing Italy’s presence as a preeminent battery manufacturer.
The technology partnership with ABB will bring Italvolt expertise in design and delivery of electrification and automation solutions for power control, distribution and management, optimization of manufacturing processes and long-term energy efficiency. It will also provide consultancy on robotics and autonomous operations for transportation and handling of material in the process units of the plant, as well as exploration of solutions for data gathering, processing, cloud storage and analytics for production planning, quality control, management, operations and reporting.
Lars Carlstrom, CEO and founder of Italvolt commented: “Italvolt has the objective of gathering industrial excellences in each area of our business and we are glad to announce this partnership agreement with ABB, one of the foremost names in the global industry. ABB state of art technology will help us in ensuring the sustainability of our production plant as well as enable efficient, reliable, and cost-effective production. We are happy that ABB is joining us for the journey.”
“Italvolt’s plans for large-scale manufacturing are crucial for electrical mobility, increased sustainability and reindustrialization of the region,” said Mauro Martis, South Europe Cluster Manager, Process Industries, ABB. “Together we will explore our technologies and synergies with Italvolt, providing our know-how for this ambitious project.”
