NITRA could become a centre for electric-car development for Italian carmaker Fiat. The company wants to launch a research and development (R&D) centre at the Technical Faculty of the Slovak University of Agriculture in Nitra, to work on electric-car technology. Representatives of the Italian technology developer Mare Engineering have already discussed the plan to establish an R&D centre with the university’s management, the SITA newswire wrote in April.
“Fiat wants to manufacture electric cars and we should educate graduates for the firm,” Dean of the Faculty of Technology Vladimír Kročko told SITA. “We want to orient a new study programme here.”
The Italian firm showed a particular interest in the activities of the Department of Electrical Engineering and Automation, which is also involved in mechatronics. The meeting was initiated by the Slovak Investment and Trade Development Agency (SARIO). The Italian project is similar to the development and technology centre of German firm Muehlbauer in Krškany in Nitra Region, which produces machine and technology prototypes.