Ivrea's Mavel pushes electric motors for sports cars

he name of the company derives from Macchine Veloci (Mavel) and this says a lot about the business model of the company that was founded in Pont Saint Martin and then chose Ivrea for a second location, about two years ago. "We needed space and more infrastructure to support the company's development and the transition from the development phase to production, albeit in limited volumes,' says company founder Davide Bettoni. Mavel designs and develops electric motors for sports cars and counts among its customers Aston Martin, Ducati, McLaren, as well as other companies in the premium segment of the automotive market. The goal is to achieve an annual production of around 20,000 motors. "We want to deal with niche production in order to stay out of the difficulties that characterise this industry.

Mavel manufactures the motors, 'from A to Z', and also takes care of the development of the motor control systems, the inverters, 'this means that we develop all the software,' explains Bettoni, 'we also design the electronic hardware, we design it completely, of course the assembly of the individual parts on the electronic boards is taken care of by suppliers, the motor as a whole is designed directly by us in all its parts, we assemble the motors, and we also test and test them directly ourselves.

The idea of the company's founders was to create a 'light factory', something reminiscent of a factory but within the city, different from traditional ones 'with many machines and few men,' adds Bettoni. So small but significant volumes in an industrial context in which the role of men is decisive. What makes this industrial 'dream' possible is the history and skills of an area that boasts a hot moulding district and equally important skills in the area of processing related to electronic boards. Mechanics and electronics together, indeed.

The company began in 1999 to produce engines for the industrial sector and in particular for Asia. "Then, through various vicissitudes, we moved on to larger engines destined for the military and aeronautics sectors,' says Bettoni, 'until 2015, when, with the arrival of a French and a Chinese partner, we decided to focus on the automotive sector. Today, Mavel employs some 80 people and has 60 patents. The technologies developed between Canavese and Valle d'Aosta, thanks also to the presence of a Chinese partner in the ownership, are used in Asia on larger volumes.