MILAN (Reuters) – Luxury sportscar maker Ferrari said on Wednesday it would work with tobacco company Philip Morris International (PMI) to study ways in which they could cut the carbon footprint of their factories in Italy’s Emilia-Romagna region.
Ferrari, known globally for its roaring petrol engines and prancing horse logo, is developing its first fully-electric car, expected in late 2025, and has made a pledge to become carbon-neutral by 2030.
Its new collaboration with PMI, dubbed Ferrari E-Lab, aims to identify solutions for industrial electrification in the areas of generation, storage, and transformation of renewable energy, the automaker said in a statement.
Ferrari and PMI have had a strategic partnership since 1973, which mainly developed into the Marlboro cigarette maker’s sponsorship of Ferrari’s Formula One team.
The new project will target the two companies’ production complexes, located respectively in Maranello and Crespellano, about 30 kilometres (19 miles) apart.
A first study will explore the viability of long-term energy storage technologies and should be completed by the end of September 2024, Ferrari added.
No further details, including operational or financial ones, were provided.
“Our companies will collaborate to research new technology solutions to develop and optimise the use of energy in our industrial processes,” Ferrari CEO Benedetto Vigna said.
PMI is “particularly interested in exploring the potential (that) industrial electrification could play in our strategy,” the company’s Senior Vice President Operations Scott Coutts said.
Almost 5,000 people are employed at the Ferrari facility in its hometown of Maranello, while over 2,000 people work at PMI in Crespellano.
Ferrari is now developing a new assembly plant called ‘e-building’ in Maranello, where last year it also installed a fuel cell plant that produces electricity without combustion and supplies 5% of the energy required by production operations.
(Reporting by Giulio Piovaccari, editing by Alvise Armellini)
