An Italian private equity manager wants to build electric cars at Fiat’s Termini Imerese factory reported the Financial Times.
Fiat plans to close the Sicilian plant at the end of 2011 and the FT cited Simone Cimino, chairman of Cimino & Associates Private Equity, as saying that he needed a minimum investment of EUR65m (US$88.8m) to start making EVs at the factory.
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Investments could eventually rise to EUR90m ($123m).
Cimino told the newspaper that he had already raised about EUR50m ($68m) of funding from investors including the Sicilian regional government and French bank Natixis. He was also in talks with Bangalore-based electric cars maker Reva.
The FT noted that the venture would need to make 30,000 cars a year to break even. It would cut production times for cars by modernising the factory, and would build electric cars selling for EUR16,000 to EUR17,000 ($22-$235,00) using Termini’s existing workforce.
The Italian government has reported that it has received up to 10 proposals for the factory which employs about 1,400 people.
