ABB to produce chargers in Italy
The Swiss technology group ABB has begun construction of a new production facility for charging infrastructure in the Italian municipality of San Giovanni Valdarno in Tuscany. The 16,000-square-meter facility is expected to go into operation at the end of 2021.
According to the group, the investment in the new plant amounts to 30 million US dollars, the equivalent of about 26 million euros. The entire portfolio of DC chargers for electric vehicles will be manufactured in Tuscany “from systems for domestic use to systems for installation in public areas and public transport,” the Swiss company explains. Only at the beginning of this month, the manufacturer presented its latest rapid charging station, the Terra 184.
But back to Italy: The production facility itself is to be operated in the most environmentally friendly way possible thanks to solar systems on the roof, an innovative heating and cooling system and a fleet of electric company cars. 20 per cent of the plant area – 3,200 square meters – will also be dedicated to R&D activities. ABB aims to work primarily on the implementation of “new solutions, new software and product life cycle management tools”. The manufacturing process will be highly digitalised.
ABB speaks of a significant step for the company’s internal eMobility business, which has been built up over a decade. “As global demand for sustainable transport continues to increase this new facility will ensure that ABB can meet that demand and remains the go to provider for our end to end e-mobility solutions,” said Frank Mühlon, head of ABB’s Global E-Mobility Infrastructure Solutions. We recently spoke to Mühlon at length about new products in the AC, DC and HPC areas in an interview with ABB’s charging infrastructure specialist.
With over 14,000 DC charging stations installed, the Swiss group is one of the most important suppliers of charging infrastructure. This is a market that has developed strongly recently and will continue to change at a rapid pace in the coming years. ABB is gearing its corporate structure to this ramp-up: ABB’s new global e-mobility centre and a research and development centre on the campus of Delft Technical University in Heertjeslaan, the Netherlands, are scheduled for completion this year. The investment volume there: 10 million dollars, equivalent to around 8.6 million euros.