MILAN: Italian luxury carmaker Ferrari on Friday launched a new solar-powered factory at the group’s Maranello site, where its electric cars would be produced from 2026.
The factory, constructed at 42,500 square metres is located just north of the current Ferrari campus, will produce the group’s legendary combustion engine cars, hybrids and the its first EV.
The 25-metre-high factory will be powered in part by more than 3,000 solar panels generating 1.3 megawatts at their peak.
The building would be entirely powered by renewable energy using both internal and external sources by the end of the current year.
High-voltage batteries, electric motors and axles will also be manufactured there, said Ferrari in a statement. Later the facility will start producing the new electric Ferrari sports car, the design of which is being kept secret ahead of its launch in 2025.
“It’s going to look like nothing you’d expect it to look like,” Ferrari chairman John Elkann told media. He told the Norges Bank Investment Management podcast that he already had taken a test drive of the new vehicle. He added that the new car is incredible in all ways.
Putting the production of all its car models under one roof will allow Ferrari reallocate and reorganise all production activities more efficiently among its existing facilities in Maranello.
The group unveiled its first hybrid model in 2013, and now has four. It intends to produce full electric and hybrid models to make up 60 percent of production by 2026, and 80 percent by 2030.
