“It is important to make everyone understand that our industry does not live in isolation, the transition cannot be made only by upsetting our sector, because we are an integral part of a complex system on which we depend, and which we can only partially control”. This was stated by Roberto Vavassori, the new president of Anfia, during his speech at the assembly of the association.
“When we talk about decarbonization we must first of all specify whether we are talking about products or processes. Because before the vehicle product, there is the study of the processes to make it with sustainable methods in a holistic sense. And we all know very well that about 80% of the value of each vehicle is represented by its components, for which the design of the suppliers’ production processes assumes a central role in the journey towards decarbonisation.If we then analyze the carbon footprint of our companies according to scopes 1,2 and 3, it is evident that for almost 80% of this is the responsibility of the energy we buy. To decarbonise the processes of the automotive sector, therefore, it is necessary to plan reliable and not just intermittent sources of renewable energy”.
“For our country alone – explained Vavassori – this means being able to install plants that generate at least 200 TWh, equal to 200 thousand billion watt hours every year to replace the current fossil sources of electricity. And this only for the processes of production, not also to move vehicles. For the latter, decarbonising means opening the horizon to energy vectors with low CO2 emissions, whether they are fuel or electricity, according to the fundamental principle of technological neutrality. In particular, it means verifying what conditions are necessary for a widespread electrification of the European vehicle fleet, from consumer acceptance to the economic convenience of the new vehicles available.It means investing in innovative technologies for new decarbonised fuels, as well as providing for an additional production of over 70 TWh per year of renewable electricity for the power supply of the electrified Italian park only”.
“It is necessary to produce plausible estimates of the needs of the various energy vectors in the various sections of the transition path – continued the new president – taking care of the economic and financial sustainability of the huge investments necessary and avoiding their rapid technical obsolescence. I am speaking, for example, of the infrastructures of recharging of electric vehicles, which risk being obsolete the same day they are installed, if at low amperage. It is necessary to invest heavily in research to overcome the current state of the art of electric propulsion technology. On the subject of batteries we are to the pre-teen stage, there is still much to be researched, given that current technology is now over 45 years old. It is certainly improving rapidly, but not enough to keep Europe competitive globally.”
“In this regard – he continued – it is worth remembering that the 30 so-called gigafactory plants under construction in Europe all use currently available technology, nothing innovative, and therefore are at a high risk of obsolescence even before being depreciated. the development of the battery value chain upstream of the gigafactories in Italy is a priority to build a future less dependent on China (France and Germany are already starting to implement this process). And we must do so because batteries represent over 50% of the value added value of the entire electric vehicle value chain,” Vavassori said.
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