FPT Industrial has officially inaugurated the first ever plant of the group in Turin Iveco dedicated exclusively to e-Powertrain. The plant is dedicated to the electrified offer of the group, with three production lines dedicated to the assembly of batteries for light and heavy commercial vehicles, as well as electric axles including engines and transmissions for vans and trucks. The site presents latest generation technologies, perfectly embodying the example of industry 4.0 and smart industry. Central is the attention dedicated to sustainability, not only with regard to the final product. The Turin plant is in fact the first factory of the Iveco group to be completely neutral in terms of carbon impact.
Alessandro Sezza, Plant Manager of the plant, explains that once fully operational, the plant will have a production capacity of more than twenty thousand electric axles per year. Similarly, over twenty thousand batteries for light commercial vehicles and electric buses will be assembled in Turin over a twelve-month period. The idea of the new factory was born for the first time in 2018, the year in which a division dedicated to electro-mobility was opened in the Iveco group. Since then, the site has been conceived and built in record time, thanks also to the extensive use of virtual reality and augmented reality tools to accelerate the study and optimization of workstations for technicians. Technologies that continue to be used even after the plant is put into operation, with the aim of monitoring working conditions to improve process efficiency and personnel safety. To this end, the Turin site boasts close collaboration between humans and robots, both for the direct assembly of batteries and axles and for monitoring. In the warehouses, for example, the well-known four-limb robot from Boston Dynamics roams, equipped with a thermal camera and chemical sensors to check for high temperatures and the presence of toxic gases where human personnel cannot have access.
He was present at the inauguration the mayor of Turin Stefano Lo Russo, who underlined how the energy transition can provide great employment opportunities for the Piedmontese city, which aims to remain at the center of the industrial automotive industry. The new FPT plant will have a staff of two hundred employees, many of whom are under 30 and hired directly by the Polytechnic of Turin with which the Iveco group has entered into a partnership. Among those present at the event, Andrea Tronzano, economic development advisor for the Piedmont Region, stands out. According to Tronzano, the inauguration of the new FPT plant confirms the central role of Piedmont in the mobility industry. The declared objective of the director is to demonstrate to the world the profitability of investments in Piedmont.
The opening of the plant provided the Iveco group with an opportunity to illustrate the future strategies of the group. Annalisa Stupenengo, Chief Operations Officer, declared her intent to achieve carbon neutrality by 2040, ten years before the common European goals. The Turin site becomes a precursor in this, being supplied entirely with electricity produced from renewable sources, a practice that will also be extended to the other Iveco plants. All this will contribute to halving greenhouse gas emissions by 2026 compared to 2019. Stupenengo has defined the new FPT factory as an example of the Smart Factory of the future. In fact, investments in digitization and modernization of Information Technologies stand out, to enrich data collection in order to optimize production processes and reduce waste. For example, on each production line of the plant there are active monitoring systems for the availability of components and any faults, leading to the shutdown of the entire chain if consumption is not necessary.
The production of electric axles for heavy vehicles of the Nikola brand is already active in Turin, while from 2023 it will also start the assembly of 69 kWh batteries for electric buses. Sylvain Blaise, president of the Group’s Powertrain Business Unit, however, reiterated that a single energy solution is not enough to achieve carbon neutrality in the mobility sector. Hence, the multi-energy approach is envisaged as a pillar for Iveco’s future strategies. In addition to battery electric vehicles, already a reality especially for short and medium distance transport, the group will also invest in the decarbonisation of fuels, of which biomethane is an example, and in hydrogen both in the form of fuel cell and in its combustion. in thermal engines, to be used especially on long routes. The multi-energy approach is one of the four cornerstones for the sustainability of powertrains according to the Iveco group. These include modularity, interconnection and multi-application for the transfer of technologies between different sectors. The batteries developed for electric buses will also be transferable, for example, to the naval, off-road and power generation sectors.
The inauguration of the FPT e-powertrain plant thus becomes the manifesto of two realities. The first is the ongoing conversion of the entire mobility sector, highlighting how energy conversion is only possible with a reinvention of all processes. At the same time, the opening of the Turin site certifies the intact centrality of Piedmont and Italy in the European automotive industry.
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