LEVC is set to enter the electric private car market amid a significant expansion of its product range.
The brand, best known for manufacturing London taxis, has revealed a new platform which it says will underpin a new range of EVs, to include both passenger-carrying and commercial vehicles.
Currently, the LEVC range consists of the TX range-extender electrified taxi, and the closely-related VN5 van.
The new Space Oriented Architecture (SOA) platform has been co-developed with LEVC’s parent company Geely Holding Group, also owner of brands such as Volvo, Polestar, and Lotus.
The new platform will be compatible with 73kWh, 102kWh, and 120kWh battery options, with the latter allowing a range of up to 359 miles on the WLTP cycle, and ultra-fast charging capability allowing around 124 miles of range to be added in ten minutes. Front-wheel drive, rear-wheel drive, and all-wheel drive layouts will all be possible.
SOA has been designed, with a centrally-located battery, to have a fully flat floor, which LEVC says allows space for passengers or cargo to be maximised. In addition, the rear suspension has been designed to allow extra carrying capacity underneath the main luggage area, behind the rear axle. Low step-in heights are also claimed to aid access.
Vehicle lengths of between 4,860mm and 5,995mm will be possible, with wheelbases of between 3,000mm and 3,800mm.
SOA also incorporates LEVC’s new L-OS digital architecture, which it says will support up to Level 4 autonomous capability, which is expected to arrive after 2025 depending on local market regulations.
LEVC is tight-lipped about specific model plans with the new platform, but says it will allow it to target new market sectors, being suitable for “premium and multi-purpose passenger cars” and commercial vehicles. It has suggested target markets will include sharing, leisure, business, utility, and delivery.
Speaking at the launch of the new platform, at LEVC’s factory near Coventry, managing director Chris Allen said: “It’s a pretty big ambition to be showing this span that takes us from passenger luxury consumer vehicles to utility and delivery vehicles.
“We’re covering a big space there in a single platform. But that’s what this platform is and why it’s so exciting because it’s giving us flexibility to say we’re not just constrained with one area, one segment.
“We have a complete, flat-floor, modifiable environment that we can adapt and that satisfies the BEV market.”
The TX and VN5 are set to continue alongside the new SOA-based models, and could themselves become fully electric at a later date.
Allen said: “The TX as it currently stands delivers for us what we need and what our customers need right now. A lot of that is about delivering a product that is electric, but gives certainty around a vehicle used for business purposes [that can] continue to move where the infrastructure doesn’t necessarily exist [for charging].
“Every automotive has that vision of getting their products into that BEV space. For us it’s not so much about when we do it, it’s about when is the market and infrastructure in place to enable us to do it.”
