Geely shows off new EV platform in Beijing

ZHEJIANG Geely Holding Group (Geely) has debuted its critical new electric vehicle (EV) platform at the Beijing Motorshow, a platform that is set to carry both the Chinese brand and Volvo into the future.

Debuted underpinning the Lynk & Co Zero concept – a 4.85m long four-door hatchback that is expected to enter production within 12 months as the 08 – the Sustainable Experience Architecture (SEA) platform is tipped to be shared across nine brands within the Geely group, including Geely, Proton, Lotus, Volvo, Lynk&Co and Polestar.

This list could be further expanded after Geely revealed in a statement that it was also in discussions to share the platform with other global OEMs, though did not identify exactly which manufacturers.

In the meantime though, SEA will succeed the existing CMA (Common Modular Architecture) platform and underpin all of the group’s future EVs while the CMA platform will continue on underpinning internal combustion engine vehicles.

Geely Holding will deploy the SEA architecture across its portfolio of nine global automotive brands which collectively sold over 2 million units in 2019. 

The Zero – expected to be coded the 08 – will be the first model underpinned by the new platform and will go into production next year at a new factory being built in Eastern China.

Lynk & Co says the Zero has a range of 700km under the old NEDC fuel consumption test regime, equating to about 500km under the US rated EPA cycle, similar to the Tesla Model Y.

Measuring in at 4850mm long, 1980mm wide and 1530mm high, it sits on a wheelbase of 2999mm and boasts a 0-100km/h time of four seconds.

The company said the Zero will support full-life “Over the Air” wireless updates with “class-leading artificial intelligence” that will support full voice interaction. 

The SEA architecture can accommodate smaller A-segment through to larger D- and E-segment vehicles and will have a variation developed specifically for light-commercial vehicles with different packaging offerings including front, rear and all-wheel drive layouts.

The architecture itself has been developed over the past three years at the group’s R&D centres in China, Sweden, the UK and Germany. 

Geely estimates that in the short-term, “hundreds of thousands of SEA-based vehicles” will be produced within China with numbers ramping up considerably in the long term as subsidiary brands introduce their own SEA-based products. 

“The use of SEA will attract customers, both B2B and B2C, with unrivalled connectivity, shared vehicle functions, e-motor capabilities, constant over-the-air-updates that will keep vehicles up to date, leading autonomous drive functions, and will offer a maximum range in excess of 700km between recharging with the capacity to increase range in the future,” the brand said in a statement.

“Synergies generated by the architecture within Geely Holding are expected to reduce development costs at participating brands and to generate substantial savings on R&D costs.”

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

“This far-reaching innovation will greatly expand the volume and scalability of our zero-emission models, and we intend to offer the benefits of this innovation to other manufacturers – reflecting the common interests in our industry in addressing the challenges of climate change.

“Open-source architectures will be a hallmark of new mobility services, of which Geely Holding is proud to be the pioneer.”