Stellantis
An agreement was reached with the Italian government for the construction of the Gigafactory dedicated to the production of batteries for electric cars. During the Stellantis EV Day event, Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares announced that the plant will be built in Termoli.Once completed, the Gigafactory in Termoli will be the third of the group, after that of France and Germany. The Italian-French group will invest more than 30 billion euros for its electrification plan. According to Tavares himself, once the plan is completed, the company will have 5 Gigafactories in Europe and the United States, for a total of 260 GWh of installed capacity. The goal of tripling the sales of electric vehicles inevitably requires an adequate supply of batteries and the construction of the new Gigafactory will be fundamental to obtaining an adequate production capacity.
credit photo Stellantis
https://www.media.stellantis.com/ There was no shortage of words of enthusiasm from the Minister of Economic Development Giancarlo Giorgetti who declared:
The good and awaited news is the Gigafactory in Italy. As the Ministry of Economic Development we have worked to make this happen. Now the discussion on the industrial plan with the interested parties must continue.
If the document unanimously approved in recent weeks by all the municipal councilors, from the left to the 5 Star Movement, now showed the enthusiasm for the "almost" search for candidacy of the city of Turin, the new decision of placing the Gigafactory in Termoli seems to betray the Piedmontese capital.
Piedmont and Turin betrayed by Stellantis. This decision betrays Turin. It betrays Piedmont, its history, its workers, its universities and in general a land that invented the car, invested, took risks and has enormous credit towards this company and this state. Those who are betrayed feel anger. An anger that those with institutional responsibilities must transform into action. We await clear words from Rome to understand on what basis this choice was shared with the Government, these are the words of the President of the Region Alberto Cirio and the mayor Chiara Appendino.
Stellantis just made an 'aggressive' $35.5 billion commitment to electric vehicles
© Stellantis 2020 Dodge Challenger SRT Super Stock: SRT Hellcat: A sinister red jewel-like eye is featured on the SRT Hellcat Redeye badge.Stellantis, the giant automaker formed by the merger of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and France's PSA, plans to invest €30 billion, or $35.5 billion, by the end of 2025 to expand its portfolio of electrified vehicles.
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The company is planning for 70% of its sales in Europe and 40% of sales in the US to be either fully electric or plug-in hybrid (but with a large majority of those vehicles being fully electric) within four years, Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares said during an online presentation.
'[The plan] is among the most aggressive electric vehicle commitments the industry has yet seen,' said Karl Brauer, an industry analyst with ISeeCars.com.
Among its upcoming offerings will be an all-electric muscle car from Stellantis' Dodge brand, as well as an all-electric Ram pickup.
The new Dodge is expected in 2024. Dark images in Stellantis' video presentaion show it to have sharp corners and retro styling, much like the current Dodge Challenger. It also shows a light-up version of Dodge's triangular 1960's logo.
Dodge CEO Tim Kuniskis offered no further details, but made it clear that Dodge will continue as a high-horsepower performance brand. It has become clear, though, that electric cars offer real performance competition to the traditional internal combustion V8 engines Dodge is famous for. Tesla's electric Model S four-door sedan can now at least match the drag strip performance of a highly specialized Dodge performance coupe, like the Challenger Demon.
Kuniskis admitted that engineers are reaching the performance limits of internal combustion engines and now require at least some assistance from electric motors to get large gains in power and performance. Even exotic sports car makers, like Ferrari and McLaren, are introducing plug-in hybrids, not just as a way of beating emissions standards, but as a way of increasing speed.
As part of its electrification plan, Stellantis is creating four different electric vehicle 'platforms,' or core engineering setups. One will be for compact vehicles, like the Fiat 500, one for medium-sized vehicles, like mid-sized sedans and crossovers, and another for larger vehicles, like SUVs, large sedans or minivans. All of those will incorporate battery packs into the floor of the vehicle.
A fourth platform will be engineered with a separate metal frame with the battery packs carried between the frame rails. This structure, similar to the one Ford uses in the all-electric F-150 Lightning pickup, will be for trucks like the electric Ram 1500 pickup, which is also planned for 2024.
The electric vehicles will be able to drive up to about 500 miles on a charge, according to Stellantis. The company expects that, by 2026, the total ownership cost of electric vehicles, including fuel and insurance costs, will be the same as for internal combustion-powered vehicles without any government incentives.
The company plans a full line of electric and plug-in hybrid trucks and commercial vehicles. These will include ones with a new technology Stellantis is calling Range Electric Paradigm Breaker. Without providing any details, Stellantis executives promised it would allow towing and hauling without concerns about reduced driving range.
Stellantis will also operate five large battery factories in North America and Europe and the company expects to have made advances in solid state battery technology by 2026. Solid state batteries can have much higher energy-density than the batteries currently used in electric cars, which use liquids, and potentially offer increases in range while reducing both weight and charge time.
Opel, a brand PSA took over from General Motors in 2017, will sell only electric vehicles in Europe and will also re-enter the Chinese market by 2028. Fiat, which already sells the electric Fiat 500, will also become an all-electric brand in Europe.
The head of Stellantis' Jeep brand, Christian Meunier, said Jeep will have a zero-emission option for every model it sells by 2025. That will include an all-new off-road Jeep model, according to Stellantis' chief designer Ralph Gilles.
Even with all of these investments, Stellantis said it expects to increase its profitability over the next several years thanks to technology improvements and cost savings from its merger.
Correction: An earlier version of this article misspelled the last name of Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares.
© Stellantis Dark, smoky images shown during the Stellantis presentation showed a vehicle simlar to the Dodge Challenger with a lit up 1960s-style Dodge logo. 
© Stellantis Jeep promises more plug-in vehicles like thisGrand Cherokee 4xe.