Detroit Electric signs joint venture with China’s Far East Smarter Energy Group; $1.8B investment
09 March 2017
Detroit Electric has signed a joint venture deal with Far East Smarter Energy Group of China, which has helped secure a total investment of $1.8 billion dollars for the development and production of a range of electric vehicles over the next three years.
The joint venture will invest US$370 million into Detroit Electric’s European operations over the next four years. Initially, this will fund the completion of the final homologation phase of its all-electric SP:01 sports car—originally unveiled in April 2013 (earlier post)—and the start of volume production at the company’s Leamington Spa facilities in the UK. This will include the creation of 120 new engineering jobs and 100 new manufacturing jobs. Series production of the SP:01 is planned to start later this year.
In parallel to the SP:01 activities in the UK, the new joint venture will establish an all-new design, research and development, testing and production facility. The focus of this new technical and manufacturing center will be the development of a family of Detroit Electric vehicles for launch in the coming years.
First in the pipeline is an all-new battery electric sports utility vehicle (SUV) that will enter production in late 2018. A third model is planned for launch in 2020.
To accommodate assembly lines for those new models, the company plans to expand its existing facilities in Leamington Spa and the workforce will double to over 400 directly employed colleagues, and as many again potentially employed indirectly at local businesses supplying services and support to the site.
By 2020, the joint venture aims to be selling 100,000 Detroit Electric vehicles annually in the rapidly expanding electric vehicle markets around the world.
The Far East Smarter Energy Group is a publicly traded company on the Shanghai Stock Exchange. Based in Yixing, China, it is primarily engaged in the design, development and manufacture of electrical systems, battery manufacturing and technologies for transportation and energy storage.
It would be great if the links in the article went to _free_ sites.
Posted by: Brent Jatko | 09 March 2017 at 03:46 PM
China is effectively merging 100 EV companies by requiring licenses, some may end up doing deals outside the country.
Posted by: SJC | 10 March 2017 at 07:43 AM