Geely presents world's first open-source EV architecture

MANILA: With the growing need for electrified vehicles and the necessity to shorten the development period of new models, modular production is rapidly becoming a new trend in the automotive sector.

Zheijiang Geely Holding Group (Geely Holding) recently made an announcement regarding the introduction of its Sustainable Experience Architecture (SEA), which will become the foundation of the whole vehicle strategy of the group.

The SEA is considered to be the first open-source electric vehicle (EV) architecture worldwide. It was established from scratch to enhance the driving experience of users. It lays the groundwork for a three-layer ecosystem around the internet of vehicles, automotive systems, and whole vehicles.

The SEA is fancied to be the most robust vehicle design in the world and the most effective smart EV solution. It revolutionizes the software development cycle and reduces the development time by over 50%.

With technological and scientific innovations in six key areas, the SEA paves the way to more convenient and smarter driving experience for users globally.

It is the most flexible vehicle architecture in the world, as it is capable of accommodating A to E-class vehicles like trucks, sports cars, city cars, multi-purpose vehicles (MPVs), SUVs, and sedans.

The SEA has been designed with continuous improvements in the aspects of performance, safety, autonomous driving, smart connectivity, electric power, and interior space.

The SEA also plays a significant role in the transition of Geely from an automaker to a mobility technology service provider. Developing a revolutionary EV system is one of Geely’s largest technological innovations for more than a decade.

To date, over seven brands are creating 16 new models on the new design for various market categories.

The SEA can reinforce the production of models with a wheelbase from 1800 mm to 3300 mm. A vehicle which was manufactured on the SEA provides more expansive interior space compared to competitive models in the same category.

The SEA not only facilitates the production of such models but it also allows brands to efficiently fulfill the customized needs and demands of users through more exceptional design freedom.

The adoption of a three-tiered power management system, which is based on the e-motors of a vehicle, the charging ecology, and the battery management system, is what SEA focuses on.

The battery has been assessed for its range to be retained without being degraded for at least 200,000 km and for it to have a design life of 2,000,000 km under the New European Driving Cycle (NEDC) operational conditions. The 110kWH modular cell-to-pack (CTP) incorporated battery reduces range anxiety due to a long battery range of 700 km.

The SEA has the ability to accommodate e-motors with a power output of up to 637hp. It is also fitted with an independently engineered high-performance two-speed EV transmission with a maximum torque of 8,000Nm.

As for charging speed, the SEA reinforces an ultra-high- speed 800V charging system that can recharge 120 km of range in five minutes or less.

The SEA OS is considered an operating system (OS) that was designed to bolster a fully incorporated vehicle architecture that crosses the boundaries between the cloud, software, and hardware. Geely will also autonomously develop major vehicle chip components in the future.

The SEA architecture reinforces the continuous development of completely autonomous driving, highly autonomous drive technologies, and advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS).

The cutting-edge modules of the architecture support 360-degree view with multi-level redundancies, and this satisfies the most rigorous safety tests in the world.

SEA models are also capable of providing highly autonomous driving capabilities, which include intelligent navigation, automatic lane change, autonomous parking, eyes-off driving, and hands-free driving.

Models that were built on the SEA will attain highly autonomous driving on select roads by 2021 and highly autonomous driving on open roads by 2023.

Aside from this, self-driven taxi models will also be developed on the SEA and enter operation on select roads by 2022. This offers smart mobility services for the 2022 Asian Games to be held in Hangzhou, China.

By 2025, fully autonomous drive capable vehicles will also be available on the open road.

The SEA takes global protection to a higher level and safeguards the privacy, property, health, and lives of users with its nine various systems. All products that were developed on this architecture are expected to pass the global five-star safety tests.

To assure safety of the electric power modules, over 202 tests were carried out on the battery pack with cells.

Among the tests that were performed, SEA succeeded in the side pillar crash test, which is critical in the protection of vehicle batteries and assurance that SEA models surpass the most meticulous global safety standards.

The SEA is a specialized high-performance vehicle architecture designed around the battery module for pure EVs, which not only leads in a low center of gravity, but also in a 50:50 balanced front-to-rear chassis weight distribution.

Products that depend on this architecture can be fitted with a high-performance electric four-wheel drive system that can have a dual-motor setup and a millisecond-speed power distribution that offers over 600kW of power, allowing it to attain an acceleration of zero to 100kph in less than three seconds.

Photos from Geely

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