Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) has secured a €250m loan from the European Investment Bank (EIB) for its research and development (R&D) projects.
The three-year loan will support the automobile manufacturing group’s activities in its R&D centres in Italy and will consolidate the EU bank's collaboration with FCA, which has resulted in €2.4bn worth of financing operations since 2009.
Specifically, FCA's three-year investment plan in R&D for the period 2017 - 2019 has a number of key objectives including greater efficiency, a reduction in CO2 emissions by petrol and alternative fuel engines, and the study of new hybrid architectures.
Part of the loan will be for facilities located in southern Italy (Puglia) and owned by the subsidiary Magneti Marelli, which designs and produces advanced systems and components for the automotive industry.
This loan comes under the EIB's traditional financing sectors such as climate change action and energy efficiency.
The operation is being supported by the “InnovFin – EU Finance for Innovators” initiative for large projects in conjunction with the European Union via its financial instruments under the Horizon 2020 programme.
