Geely Design, CEVT and TactoTek jointly announced that they have initiated projects to develop smart surfaces for multiple automotive brands owned by CEVT’s parent company, Zhejiang Geely Holding Group. The current interiors project is the first of several anticipated by the framework agreement between the companies.
CEVT is developing technology for several brands in the Geely Group family, who had a combined annual volume of 2,15 million vehicles in 2018. The platform developed by CEVT, the Compact Modular Architecture (CMA), is currently shared by Lynk & Co vehicles, the Volvo XC 40 and will also be in coming Geely models. For interior design, CEVT works closely with its sister company, Geely Design, a global organisation with design centres in Sweden, the UK, Spain, the USA and China.
“CEVT focuses a great deal in new innovative technologies and TactoTek’s IMSE (Injection Molded Structural Electronics) technology complements our future ambitions with light, thin, conformal electronics that are both beautiful and durable, and use up to 75 % less plastic than traditional electronics assemblies,” said Didier Schreiber, SVP of Innovation at CEVT.
“In addition, IMSE technology gives Geely Design new degrees of freedom to realise our design vision with innovative product design and intuitive functions”, said Andreas Nilsson, SVP of Geely Design Sweden.
TactoTek is a provider of solutions for injection moulded structural electronics (IMSE) that integrate printed circuitry and electronic components into 3D injection moulded plastics. Much of the company’s work in developing design rules and proving the IMSE technology platform has been in partnership with automotive OEMs and their suppliers to meet demanding automotive use cases. For the automotive market, TactoTek licenses its technology and know-how so OEMs and brands can purchase IMSE parts manufactured by their established suppliers.
“The cost-efficient and scalable approach of CEVT’s and Geely’s platform-based strategy matches well with IMSE technology. Within a specific brand, they can easily use the same tooling for an IMSE part across multiple vehicles and customise cosmetics and electronic functions with additive printing processes for different models or trim levels. This operating model supports design and engineering optimization because that investment is reusable many times over,” noted Jussi Harvela, TactoTek CEO.