Economy - published on 13 October 2023
Source: Texa press office
Saturday 30 September saw the official inauguration of the new TEXA e-Powertrain plant: an advanced technological pole dedicated to the production of sophisticated inverter systems, vehicle control units and motors for the propulsion of electric vehicles, located just a stone’s throw from the company’s headquarters in Monastier di Treviso (Treviso Province).
The result of an investment, to date, of over 20 million euro, it covers an area of 24,000 square metres. This new production reality is destined to further enhance the territory and the economic fabric, bringing important benefits also from the employment point of view: when it will be fully operational, in fact, it will employ at least 100 people including engineers, specialised technicians and line operators. The expansion plan is very ambitious and foresees shortly, right next to the current plant that has just been inaugurated, the construction of a new building that should develop over three floors and will have a total surface area of 15,000 square metres.
As at its inception in 1992, TEXA was able to sense the change between mechanical and electronic cars, and in this case too, it foresaw the transition to electrification well in advance, even anticipating the big car manufacturers, who were reluctant to embrace this transformation. TEXA, in fact, began investing in this sector as early as 2018, the year in which it launched its first research and development activities on axial-flow electric powertrains and on units for converting direct current into alternating current, the inverters, which are essential for managing the torque and power delivered in an electrically driven vehicle. The TEXA e-Powertrain division intends to bring concrete evolution to the sector, investing in research and development and drawing on young talent to work alongside experienced professionals from other major Italian companies.
TEXA has made Italianism a primary element and intends to position itself as a new point of reference for a relaunch of the national automotive industry. How? By maintaining its technological leadership and ensuring continuity in research, in relations with universities, in the presence of personnel with cutting-edge skills, replacing companies that have now passed into foreign hands. A model and an excellence that can help reduce the gap so far in the transition to electric cars and bring the Italian manufacturing fabric to the frontier of automotive innovation.
The opening day and institutional speeches
The inauguration ceremony was attended by political figures of regional and national importance, as well as many prominent names from the business world, including motoring, including: Luca Ciriani, Minister for Relations with Parliament; Elena Donazzan, Councillor for Education, Training, Employment and Equal Opportunities of the Veneto Region; Luigi Brugnaro, Mayor of Venice; Gianfranco Zoppas, President of Zoppas Industries; Mario Moretti Polegato, President of Geox; Enrico Carraro, President of Confindustria Veneto; Leopoldo Destro, President of Confindustria Veneto Est; Mario Pozza, President of the Treviso-Belluno Chamber of Commerce, and many others.
Here are some passages from the speech given by TEXA Chairman Bruno Vianello at the inaugural conference: I decided to make a very significant investment in research and development in order to design and build sophisticated components in Italy for this unprecedented generation of cars. Once again, our solutions have met with the favour of the market, so much so that we have already signed two multi-year agreements, covered by industrial secrecy, with important world-class car manufacturers. I am extremely proud to inaugurate this new production plant, but I am even more proud to have reached this point in my entrepreneurial career by safeguarding the concept, very important to me, of Made in Italy.
In order to retain the best young people, we must make our companies more attractive from a technological point of view, offering them great challenges to face, as TEXA is doing by engineering and building the new powertrain products that we are presenting to you today and which represent the stage of technological change in the automobile. As I have already said, at this time we are living a decisive moment and an unrepeatable opportunity for everyone. Thanks to the ‘green’ revolution, the world is changing, and it is essential that our policy supports companies, and I am absolutely not talking about non-repayable subsidies, but rather about sharing a single far-sighted vision that will propel us to become an extraordinary nation from a technical and manufacturing point of view.
The Minister for Relations with Parliament, Luca Ciriani, spoke: Here we can see with our own eyes what it means to do successful, Italian business in the heart of the North East. The Government and President Meloni are doing their utmost to reaffirm to the world that Italy is a great country and that the interests of Italians are at the centre of the Italian and European political agenda. The government to which I belong is a friend of enterprise and a friend of the world of work. For us, this means a culture that focuses on sacrifice, responsibility, and the ability to look ahead. A culture of work means innovation and the ability to be competitive, and we are convinced that if someone creates wealth, in the end everyone benefits from that wealth.
The first thing we want to move forward on is to lighten the tax burden for families, workers and businesses, and make it easier to hire and find work. In this perspective, the relaunch of Higher Technical Institutes that we have put in place is fundamental and will be central in the national training offer, also for companies like TEXA that are always looking for new professional figures. Lastly, we will pay great attention to the relationship between citizens, businesses and the tax authorities. This is an important day because TEXA and all Italian entrepreneurs show that Italy is a great country, which fears no rivals, with great managers, technicians and workers with an incredible capacity for recovery and restart, despite catastrophic events such as the Covid and the War in Ukraine. It is sacrosanct to defend the immense heritage that we all call Made in Italy, as President Vianello reminded us.
The President of Confindustria Veneto Est, Leopoldo Destro, on the other hand, said: Thanks to Bruno Vianello for this very significant investment that enriches our territory with an industrial reference point on electric mobility, which will be essential for the future and will be able to attract skills and professionalism. The energy transition is the direction in which we are all called to proceed, beyond the appropriate considerations on the timeframe for achieving the ambitious goals that the European Union has set itself. It is an investment in industry, in manufacturing, in Italy and in Veneto in particular. Bruno Vianello and TEXA are committed to continuing and innovating Italian industry, which I would remind you is the second largest in Europe. On occasions like these we recognise, once again, the value and strength of our industry, which, like this company, is a leader in the world.
Alfonso Urso, Minister of Enterprise and Made in Italy, stopped by institutional commitments and therefore unable to attend the event, nevertheless wished to intervene through a letter, in which he said: The more than 5 thousand companies in the automotive sector generate 5.2% of GDP and employ 262 thousand people in manufacturing activities and a total of 1.26 million if we also consider related service activities. The ambitious carbon-neutral targets by 2050 that the European Union has set itself have a strong direct impact on the entire supply chain and require radical transformations, huge investments and a profound retraining of skills. The government is strongly committed to reconciling shared European environmental objectives with the needs of businesses: we have obtained an initial opening on the light vehicle regulation. Just this week, by overturning the majority in the EU, we managed to improve the text of the Euro 7 regulation, which now responds to a vision that is finally concrete, realistic, pragmatic and not ideological. The successes achieved set the conditions to safeguard, even in the short term, the national supply chain; however, the path is marked out and the transition to electrics is the only possible way forward for our companies as well. TEXA, in this context, has been able to anticipate the evolution of the market and has already launched the “e-Powertrain” division in 2018 to produce electric motors, inverters and vehicle control units. A virtuous example not only for Cav. Vianello’s industrial vision, but also for his decision to maintain strong roots in the territory, thus fully embodying the social role to which the entrepreneur is called. This is the avant-garde Italy that combines innovation, research and quality with the new requirements of sustainability. I am certain that even in this complex transition phase, Veneto and its companies will make a great contribution to the growth of the entire country.
Giancarlo Giorgetti, Minister for the Economy and Finance, entrusted his congratulations for the new milestone achieved by Bruno Vianello to a written message: The inauguration of a new plant is always an exciting event: it is for an entrepreneur who sees the concretisation of a long journey, and it is for an entire territory that sees its opportunities for wealth and employment grow. To these feelings I want to add the satisfaction that a Minister of the Economy feels when faced with companies that continue to grow in international markets and invest in Italy, allowing our country to continue to compete on the frontier of innovation. In this sense, the story of TEXA, which in 10 years has more than tripled its turnover and more than doubled its employees, is an extraordinary example of Italian manufacturing capabilities.
As you know, the automotive sector has been at the centre of my activity, even in the previous Executive. Today, in the face of increasing pressure from both the regulatory environment and international competition, the government has made available to the sector resources amounting to EUR 8.7 billion, to facilitate the transition of the vehicle fleet, but above all to help the companies in the sector in the reconversion of their production offerings. Lastly, I would like to express my appreciation for the high standards of the new plant in terms of services, which demonstrates attention to human resources, a decisive factor for a cutting-edge company.
The President of the Veneto Region, Luca Zaia, also commented on the news of TEXA’s inauguration: I congratulate TEXA on this new facility, which is synonymous with the consolidation of a manufacturing company that has been working since 1992 in the design and production of ‘garage equipment’, of which it is a world leader in the automotive sector. In its path of growth and development, I see commitment, industriousness and ingenuity, characteristics that the people of Veneto have in their DNA, always ready to roll up their sleeves and face the many challenges of an ever-changing market. In a rapidly changing global context, two are the key words: digital and technological innovation and environmental sustainability. Areas in which TEXA’s contribution of knowledge and entrepreneurial skills is invaluable.
The e-Powertrain products
The new e-Powertrain business unit, which joins TEXA’s two classic lines dedicated to Garage Equipment and Telemobility, brings with it a concrete evolution in the sector, through conspicuous investment in research and development and the hiring of young talents to work alongside experienced professionals from other major Italian companies. The products dedicated to this field range from electric motors to inverters and vehicle control units.
The electric motor
Speaking of e-Powertrain products, TEXA is today among the very few industrial companies in the world to offer an axial-flow motor, having been able to address and resolve its most critical construction aspects. The axial-flow architecture does not use a rotor concentric to the stator, as in the vast majority of electric motors, but rather parallel disks of which one is fixed (stator) and one or more are rotating (rotor). This solution offers important benefits in terms of compactness and layout, allowing it to be carried on board the vehicle more easily, push further on the integration lever and take full advantage of its delivery characteristics and speed of response. TEXA’s liquid-cooled, permanent-magnet synchronous motor has two disc rotors facing the same central stator, achieving, despite its high performance, ultra-compact dimensions and almost half the weight of a radial-flow motor of similar power.
The inverter
The inverter is a crucial element in terms of both effectiveness (speed and precision of motor response) and efficiency (efficiency of the electric motor, heat dissipated by the motor and the inverter itself.
The TEXA-designed inverter is liquid-cooled and particularly compact, and is based on IGBT modules. From 2024 onwards, however, it will also be able to rely on the latest MOSFET-SiCs, which are even more efficient at low speeds and low loads and therefore perfect for city use. TEXA is also gearing up for the use of sophisticated Gallium Nitride (GaN) components, the world’s most advanced technology in the field of inverters, which are still in a prototype state.
The new factory has two ultra-modern production lines for inverters, which are distinguished by their fundamental liquid cooling technology: DSC (Double Side Cooling), or ‘Hybrid pack’. On the platform of these two systems, IGBT or MOSFETSiC and 400, 600 or 800 Volt inverters can be built, so that customers can be offered all possible combinations.
The vehicle control unit
To close the circle of control electronics, TEXA has created an innovative vehicle control unit, capable of fully exploiting the speed and reactivity of the motor and inverter. The TEXA control unit can control two inverters and two motors guaranteeing lightning-fast reaction times, capable of giving an advantage not only in terms of efficiency but also in the driving dynamics of high-performance vehicles, which have always been the pride of our country.
