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The
Italian luxury sports car maker has been selling hybrid-electric
cars since 2019 and has promised its first-fully electric
vehicle at the end of next year. Ferrari, which sold just shy of
14,000 cars last year, might not have the scale to produce its
own cells profitably.
"We want to open up cells and understand what is in there,"
Vigna said at the opening of a research centre on battery cells
in partnership with Italy's Bologna University and chipmaker NXP
Semiconductors.
"Production will always be done through external manufacturers,
based on the know-how we hope to acquire through this research
centre," Vigna said during a presentation.
"We cannot afford to take cells as black boxes," he added.
The E-Cells Lab is focused on electrochemistry and is aimed at
boosting Ferrari's long term expertise in battery cells, which
it buys from external suppliers.
"We'll use more and more cells and will ... need to know the
chemistry," Vigna said.
E-Cells Lab would initially focus on lithium-based, liquid-state
cells, but was ready to turn to address new chemistries and
technologies, although Vigna said he did not see solid-state
batteries as a real option for the time being.
(Reporting by Giulio Piovaccari; Editing by Alexander Smith)
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