First Battery Factory for Stellantis in Italy Opens

Stellantis has opened its first Battery Technology Center in Italy as it positions itself to work within the European Union’s rules of origin automotive regulation.

The automaker group has invested $43M into the Mirafiori complex in Turin to create the plant with capabilities to design, develop and test battery packs, modules, high-voltage cells and software that will power upcoming Stellantis brand vehicles. The center is the biggest in Italy and among the largest in Europe.

More than 100 employees at the center, most of them upskilled Stellantis workers, will perform and oversee climatic stress tests, lifespan durability testing, battery management system (BMS) software development and calibration, and tear downs of packs and cells for analysis and benchmarking.

The automaker is also building a Battery Technology Center for North America, in Windsor, Ontario, Canada, as part of a global battery development and manufacturing network that will include six gigafactories.

The Mirafiori Battery Technology Center covers 8,000 square meters (86,111 square feet), spread over three levels. The heart of the center is 32 climatic test chambers – 24 walk-in chambers for testing battery packs and eight chambers for testing cells. The climate in the 24 walk-in chambers can be controlled for humidity and temperature, with a range from -40 to 60 degrees Celsius (-40 to 140 degrees Fahrenheit) and a maximum change of 20 degrees per minute. The center can test up to 47 battery packs in parallel.

Designed for future growth, the technology center’s power system can manage up to 1.2 kilovolts (kV) and 2.2 megawatts (MW) per test cell. The eight cell chambers are capable of testing 96 cells in parallel. This part of the technology center will be devoted mainly to screening innovative battery chemistry and cell behavior characterization for future development.

Ned Curic, Stellantis chief engineering and technology officer, said: “We are in the midst of a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to redefine mobility, providing smart and sustainable solutions for our customers. Our new Battery Technology Center at Mirafiori brings together the tools and talented people we need to design, test, verify and produce class-leading products that will meet our customers’ needs and accelerate bringing class-leading electric vehicles to customers around the world.”

— Paul Myles is a seasoned automotive journalist based in Europe. Follow him on Twitter @Paulmyles_  and Threads