UK EV maker owned by China's Geely launches new vehicle architecture

London Electric Vehicle Company, or LEVC, which is owned by China's Zhejiang Geely Holding Group, launched a new vehicle architecture on Thursday in Ansty, England, where its manufacturing factory is located.

The new architecture, Space Oriented Architecture, or SOA, is a physical layout that includes a given set of "state-of-the-art" parameters and modules that help LEVC's future products realize standardized and basic functions, according to a news release from LEVC.

A fully flat floor features in the SOA, which allows vehicle interior designers to plan models with different cabin capacities and flexible seating.

For traditional petrol or diesel cars, it's relatively hard to make a fully flat floor as manufacturers need to insert a drive shaft in the middle of the back seat. For most electric vehicle makers, designing a fully flat floor is achievable, but due to restrictions caused by the placement of other components, cabin spaces are limited, and seating is also fixed.

Now 75 percent of the cabin space is available for flexible seating options, said Chris Allen, managing director of LEVC UK.

Building on the SOA platform, a range of products, including passenger-carrying models and cargo-optimized commercial vehicles, are now efficient to produce, said Yu Tong, general manager of LEVC's Research and Development Institute.

Dai Min, LEVC's deputy head of sales and marketing for the Chinese mainland, explained that the SOA benefits occupants.

"We would now like to return the interior spaces to our customers," said Dai.

To enhance users' experience, the SOA incorporates a digital platform technology called L-OS, which mainly provides intelligent cockpits, where up to eight smart screens can be installed.

"Drivers and passengers can monitor surrounding street views, watch movies, and play games on these screens, which means the LEVC future vehicles will build a third leisure space for our customers. A car is not simply a car," said Dai.

LEVC, formerly the London Taxi Company, has been involved with Geely since 2006 and became a subsidiary of the leading Chinese automaker in 2013.

Since 2014, Geely has invested more than 500 million pounds ($628 million) in LEVC, with more than 50 percent of the funding going to the green cab production line.

Backed by Geely, LEVC has converted London's iconic black cabs into electric-powered vehicles, and built its Ansty-based taxi plant, which has created up to 1,000 new jobs.

LEVC is now planning to transform from a high-end taxi manufacturer into a leading provider of pure electric mobility solutions.

"Geely has got a very strong presence within this business from turning it from what it was into a very much electric vehicle with space-oriented mobility solution," said Allen.

"The benefit for LEVC in our history with Geely, and what Geely does with all of its other group brands is about leveraging and using some of the resources, support, technology, and capabilities in the same way … Geely has proven to, with time and time again, support businesses that are rapid and capable of adjusting very quickly to market demands and needs."

Zheng Wanyin contributed to this story.