China's Geely develops EV tech platform for own brands & rivals alike

Chinese automaker Geely has developed a new process for the manufacture of electric cars that will be used by all its brands, but also sold to its competitors, according to a report in the Financial Times. 

The carmaker, which also owns Volvo, Lotus and Polestar, aims to offer one of a handful of platforms that will dominate the industry in years to come and is already in talks with various other car manufacturers to license the new tech, including Daimler, which owns Mercedes-Benz and in which Geely already holds a stake. 

The technology's architecture extends driving ranges of up to 700 km, makes for lighter vehicles and can be used for any size of car - from two-seaters to minibuses.

“Our development of this transformative electric vehicle architecture marks the biggest leap forward at Geely in more than a decade,” said Geely chairman, Li Shufu.

With the automotive industry making the pivot from traditional combustion engines to battery power, companies are having work together more closely in order to avoid duplicating investments into new battery technology. 

GM and Volkswagen have both developed EV technology that they are looking to sell to competitors. Ford has already said it will use the VW system on some cars, with Honda opting to use GM technology.

Geely is the latest to join the race and enters with a global system that is aiming to underpin cars sold worldwide.

Since buying Volvo from Ford in 2010, the Chinese company has held ambitions to go global, adding other brands to its ranks as it went along, including LEVC - which makes London's iconic black cabs, Lotus and Proton.

“We had a very high ambition from the beginning, to cover everything,” Kent Bovellan, who built the platform at Geely, told the Financial Times.

“Sometimes you wonder why manufacturers all do their own everything, you wouldn’t all make Microsoft yourselves.” 

Geely has received commitments from all its brands to use the newly developed system in future electric vehicles. 

Bovellan confirmed that Geely's discussions had included Daimler, in which the company is a 10% stakeholder, but declined to offer more details.

By creating an entirely new system, built from scratch, Geely is hoping to achieve better performance than it would simply by adapting an existing EV platform. 

The company utilised its large network of R&D centres for the project, with teams in China, Germany, Sweden and the UK working together. 

Bovellan claims that the new system offers better braking and acceleration, eliminates road noise and lessens vehicle stiffness.

The systems development costs were also cut by 40%. The first Geely car to use the tech will be a large saloon from Lynk & Co, the company's new electric brand aimed at younger drivers, which will be released in 2021.

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