SF5 is an all-electric Jaguar I-Pace rival
Company wants to sell its platform wholesale to a UK OEM to speed up production process
Chinese electric-car start-up Seres is looking for a UK partner for its battery electric powertrain which currently underpins the SF5 SUV, a rival for the Jaguar I-Pace.
Rather than export finished cars to the UK from China or the US, Seres is looking to sell its electric platform with battery-pack, controller and motor technology to a UK-based OEM to help speed new battery-electric models to market.
“We have met with some potential UK partners already,” Yifan Tang, Seres chief technology officer told Autocar at the FISITA conference in London.
“We have good technology and products and are actively looking for partners,” added Tang.
The platform is built around a 90kWh lithium-ion battery pack and can be configured with either one or two motors, in total rating 510kW.
Battery cell chemistry comes from Samsung and Seres is offering to use its knowhow and contacts to bring a “next-generation cell” Gigafactory to the UK, an active project being pursued by the British government, and given a boost last week by Jaguar’s announcement that it will build a new family of electric saloons at Castle Bromwich, including a flagship XJ.
Seres sees a platform or technology-sharing deal with a UK manufacturer as a faster and more cost-effective route to market for its electric car knowhow instead of launching and establishing a new brand in the highly-competitive UK.
Seres will launch its first model, the five-seat SF5, in China in October, with a long-wheelbase version, the SF7 offering the options of a five- or seven-seat layout, following in 2020/2021. An obvious rival for the SF7 is the Tesla Model X.
Although a relatively new company, Seres has a 150k unit capacity factory in Chongqing, China, and is converting the former AM general plant in Indiana, into a 50k unit capacity plant.
Headquartered in Santa Clara, San Francisco, close to Tesla’s Fremont factory, it also has an R&D centre in Ann Arbor, Michigan and a battery cell research facility in Tokyo, Japan.
Motor and battery pack assembly is centred on Chongqing, a major car-manufacturing city in north-west China where multiple factories from brands like Ford and Changan build 3m cars a year – more than the UK has ever built in a single year.
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Source: Autocar
