Gigafactory Termoli, electric cars down: Stellantis postpones | FormulaPassion.it

First official brake on the Termoli Gigafactory project. The Molise plant should have been transformed to be suitable for the production of batteries for electric cars by ACC, the consortium created by Stellantis, Total and Mercedes but the current situation of the electric car market would have pushed the joint venture and in particular the Group led by Carlos Tavares to put everything on hold so as not to force on a production that is currently unnecessary given the sales of EVs.

Termoli Gigafactory on stand-by

“For now, the Gigafactory in France is continuing with battery production – explained the number one of Stellantis, as reported by InsideEVs –. We are well on this and soon our batteries will be used on the Peugeot 3008. But the plants in Germany and Italy are holding back. The fact is that if you don’t sell electric cars, it is not necessary to produce batteries in large quantities. Termoli is still in the company’s plans, but there is uncertainty about the construction plans”.

Stellantis slows down in anticipation of electric boom

The Portuguese manager then wanted to underline that Stellantis has no intention of taking the so-called “bite off more than it can chew” and for this reason the company will follow the market trend before developing the other planned Gigafactories (6 in total for ACC), including the one in Termoli: “It would be stupid to invest excessive amounts of money in an unnecessary project like the new gigafactories. It would be a bloodbath for the company. We can do nothing but follow the market. When the market recovers, we will increase investments and shorten the ramp up times to be ready, that’s for sure”.

Government ready to put more funds on the table

The news of the slowdown of the Termoli Gigafactory project immediately found a reaction from the Government, with Minister Adolfo Urso who opened up to the possibility of the State making new funds available to build the battery factory in Molise: “The Government is available to evaluate the allocation of additional funds, of a different nature, to the project when ACC will be able to present the new industrial plan for Termoli including the new technology”.