Geely’s SEA underpinnings to be used by Volvo, Polestar
Engineer says Tesla may have performance, Geely has everything else
The head of Geely‘s latest electric vehicle platform is not impressed by Tesla and the brand’s accomplishments. The engineer came out swinging in a recent interview, saying that “we are not impressed by Tesla.”
In the interview (via Paultan.org), Kent Bovellan, who is the chief engineer for the automaker’s SEA architecture, said that Geely had a “more cost-efficient solution,” but that Geely beat Tesla in “more or less everything, except for performance.”
Bovellan says Geely’s Sustainable Experience Architecture, which will also be used for future production Volvo and Polestar models, beats Tesla in interior space, noise, vibration, and harshness. It also wins in cost of production and ownership.
“We are not impressed by Tesla. I like that they are going the right way with an electric architecture, we’re going the same way as well. They are one of the first to introduce core systems, but mechanically, nope, never. That, we do better,” he said.
Geely’s new platform is open source, as well. It’s unusual for an automaker to share tech like this but would allow other automakers developing their own EVs to reach out to the company for support.
Bovellan said that Tesla’s outright performance was impressive, as was their software, but said that SEA offers a lighter vehicle than Tesla’s aluminum-intensive vehicles despite mixing aluminum and steel. Weight savings are crucial for range, possibly even more so than in combustion-powered cars as a heavier vehicle needs a heavier battery to deliver acceptable range, which then snowballs down the line.
The first model on the architecture is expected to be the Lynk & Co Zero sometime this year.
