Italvolt Spa has signed an agreement with Prelios Sgr, manager of Fondo Monteverdi, for the purchase of an area of 1m square metres in Piedmont.
The land is located in the municipality of Scarmagno, which is in Italy’s second largest region of Piedmont and where the former Olivetti factory used to stand.
Italvolt’s gigafactory, once fully operational, is destined to become one of Europe’s largest production and storage sites of lithium batteries for EVs, with a planned capacity of 45 GWh.
The project involves an overall investment of around EUR3.4bn (US$4bn).
The site in Scarmagno has been selected for its existing infrastructure and location in terms of good road and rail connections.
The site will be able to leverage Piedmont’s productive capability, the leading region in Italy for automotive industrial manufacturing.
The land will be reclaimed and repurposed by Italvolt, dedicating an area of 300 thousand square metres to constructing the new plant. Out of this, 20 thousand square metres will be for a Research & Development centre.
The next step for Italvolt is obtaining building permits by the start of 2022, so work can begin in the second half of the year. Pininfarina’s Architecture Division will design the new plant with a focus on environmental and social impact.
“We are delighted to have concluded the purchase of the land with input from local authorities,” said Italvolt CEO and founder, Lars Carlstrom.
“In recent months they have made a significant contribution to the promotion of Italvolt’s project. The decommissioned site offers excellent potential to restore the local industrial heritage, offering jobs and environmental improvements.”
In the first six months of 2021, registrations of electric and plug-in hybrid cars in Italy quadrupled, compared to the same period last year.
Demand for lithium-ion batteries in Europe is expected to grow at a rate of 24% per year, driven by electric mobility exceeding 1,200 GWh in 2035.
For his part, Prelios Sgr, CEO, Patrick Del Bigio, added: “The area that hosted the historic Olivetti will come back to life in the following months with a new industrial project focused on the business of electric mobility, which today presents itself as a highly strategic and innovative sector, just as Olivetti was in the 1960s in the IT sector.
“Therefore, the industrial heritage of the site remains intact, with important socio-economic developments that will derive from the focus on green industrialisation.
“With this focus, Prelios SGR has also been particularly committed and has contributed to the operation’s success, working in close coordination with representatives of the public administration and all the other actors involved, as well as defining the best value of the real estate asset.”
Certain administrative matters associated with the agreement are expected to be met within 12 months from the signing.