JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Special Issue Composites for mobility - May 2020 - 29

Geely is transitioning to become a mobility technology group

shared through a dedicated app. According to Geely, they "do use composite
materials in places - for example seating".
Initially expected in 2019, the extension in Europe and North America has
been delayed due to the collapse of the
Chinese automotive industry, which
specifically hurt Chinese brands.
At the end of 2019, before the global
coronavirus crisis outbreak, Alain Visser, chief executive of Lynk & Co International, announced to the European
media that "Lynk & Co launches at the
end of 2020 starting with Amsterdam,
and then we cascade out the stores across
Europe in the next two years. We will use
the Volvo network for servicing our vehicles."
To further the fight against the coronavirus, Geely Auto earmarked 370 million RMB of funding to develop and
research new environmentally-sustainable materials with anti-bacterial and
anti-viral properties that can be used
within air conditioning systems and
on frequently-touched surfaces such as
buttons and handles. "The Healthy Car
programme will likely partner with leading medical centres in the development
process so the materials haven't yet been
confirmed. It is possible that composite
materials that are currently used in the
medical industry could be used in this programme", the Group underlines.

Growing interest for flying cars
Geely Holding Group is also looking up at the sky. In 2017, the group
bought the US-based flying car company Terrafugia Inc. Founded in 2006
by a team of five MIT graduates, Terrafugia has struggled to turn its flying
car prototypes into production-ready
vehicles at an attainable price.

Daimler in their round B series of capital
rising", the Group confirms.
Satellites and connected cars
"The pace at which science and technology are developing has reached an unprecedented level, changing human society at
its core. The automotive industry is now
facing huge challenges and equally huge
opportunities. Geely must take the initiative to embrace change, develop through
innovation, find new synergies both online
and offline, and cooperate with global
partners to become a global technology
leader, drive change in mobility, and create new value for users", Chairman of
Geely Holding Group, Li Shufu, said,
as the group announced in March that
it has begun constructing an intelligent
satellite production and testing centre
in Taizhou City, Zhejiang province.

"Geely quickly established the Terrafugia
China R&D team to carry out independent research and development and
industry layout of urban air travel vehicles", says the Group, which has just
announced that Terrafugia successfully
conducted the first test flight of a subscale model of the TF-2A, a flying car
developed for the urban air mobility
sector.
The TF-2A sub-scale model mainly
uses composite materials and features
pure electric power, a wingspan of 4.5
metres, a designed maximum take-off
weight of 60 kg, and a cruising speed of
about 100 kilometres per hour.

The facility will include a modular satellite manufacturing centre, a satellite
testing centre, a satellite R&D centre,
and a cloud computing centre. The
satellite strategy will be implemented by Geespace, the Geely operating
company established in 2018 for the
development, launch, and operation
of low-orbit satellites. By the end of
2020, Geespace will begin the launch
of its commercial low-orbit satellite
network.

Zhejiang Geely Holding Group's
search for new opportunities also extends to Europe. In September 2019,
the Group agreed to invest in flying-car
developer Volocopter GmbH, while
the Germany-based company conducted successful flight tests in Finland.
"We invested in Volocopter along with

With the growing integration of artificial intelligence into vehicles for
features such as infotainment and autonomous driving, the data processing
requirements have grown immensely.
The group announces that "through
cloud and edge computing, the Geespace
low-orbit satellite network will be able to
meet some of the data processing requirements for future intelligent connected vehicles."
The Geely satellite
production and testing
centre in Taizhou City,
Zhejiang province
(Source: Geely)

SPECIAL ISSUE Mobility / May 2020

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JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Special Issue Composites for mobility - May 2020

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