MILAN – In the heart of the Motor Valley, no one is surprised: “to make extraordinary cars you have to come here …”. It has always been like this and the intention of a wealthy American financier (Jonathan Krane, founder of Silk EV) and a Chinese giant like Faw to create an “electrified” prestige brand from scratch in the Reggio Emilia area appears entirely obvious.
For some it seems to go back to the sixties when Ferruccio Lamborghini had decided to challenge Enzo Ferrari on his land and it was said that he went around restaurants and bars in the area to look for and hire technicians and workers. Heroic times and mythical characters, but even in the era of globalization things have not changed much and, in its own way, the fledgling multinational company went shopping and gathered together a large group of famous names in the automotive sector. People of the caliber of Walter de Silva (style advisor) and Amedeo Felisa (former CEO of Ferrari) and other managers such as Roberto Fedeli (Chief Technical Officer), Carlo della Casa, Davide Montosi, Katia Bassi, all with a past in Ferrari, Lamborghini, Aston Martin or McLaren.
A dream team entrusted with the realization of a project that is above all a challenge to the established order of supercars. In fact, the joint venture intends to set up a technological hub dedicated to electrification in competition with the big names and precisely at the moment in which the transition between combustion and battery-powered engines is taking place. The project involves the construction of the plant in an area of 360,000 square meters in the municipality of Cavassa (near the Reggio Emilia AV station) where production should start by 2023.
The first model will be the Hongqi S9 super sports car presented at the Shanghai Motor Show and destined for limited production with a 1400 hp hybrid engine. Subsequently, the plan provides for the construction of other fully electric “S series” models, such as the S7 and S5 which they will be luxury SUVs made and customized with artisanal procedures. Calendars and numbers are not yet defined and, at the moment, the only data available concerns the maximum production capacity which will be around 4000 cars per year.
The initiative, which obviously received the favor of local administrations, also includes the creation of 200 scholarships lasting three years in collaboration with the main Italian universities aimed at developing electrical know-how in the area of Italian motoring excellence. .
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