ROME (Reuters) -Automotive Cells Company (ACC), a joint venture between Stellantis , Mercedes-Benz and TotalEnergies, said on Wednesday it plans to build a battery plant in Italy.
ACC will convert an existing Stellantis plant in Termoli, in southern Italy, into a battery facility as agreed in a March 21 memorandum of understanding with Italian authorities.
It did not provide further detail on the investment.
The battery plant would be the third in Europe for Stellantis, after ones already announced in France and Germany, which are also being built through ACC.
Rome pledged last month to provide 369 million euros ($407 million) of public money for Termoli and Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares said the investment for the new site could be similar in size to those planned for the gigafactories in France and Germany, where the investment is seen at around 2 billion euros.
ACC said that the three partners have committed to increase its industrial capacity to at least 120 gigawatt hours (GWh) by 2030 and scale up the development and production of next-generation high-performance battery cells and modules.
The updated capacity plan will mobilise an investment of more than seven billion euros, ACC said in the statement.
The production capacity of the French and German plants will each be increased to 40 GWh from 24 GWh initially planned.
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(Reporting by Giulia Segreti; editing by Cristina Carlevaro and Jason Neely)