GKN joint venture centres on Shanghai for eDrive assembly

Production of GKN’s electrified drivelines will be centred in China from 2018 when production of its eDrive technologies commences at its joint venture facility in Shanghai.

GKN forecasts that its Chinese joint venture – Shanghai GKN HUAYU Driveline Systems (SDS) – will produce over one million eDrive units per year by 2025.

SDS is set to manufacture the GKN Driveline Multimode eTransmission for a domestic Chinese automaker from 2018. It is also scheduled to start production of GKN’s first complete eDrive system in 2019.

The complete eDrive system package houses the electric motor, inverter and eAxle reduction gearbox within a single housing. It will first appear on a European OEM’s small car platform that will be sold globally.

According to GKN, the scale of the SDS eDrive production hub in China will increase over the next seven years, with additional supply agreements set to commence for a range of domestic and international car manufacturers.

Production of electric and hybrid vehicles in China is forecast to grow by over 400 per cent by 2025, to just under four million vehicles per year. GKN forecasts that SDS’s eDrive production will exceed one million units annually within the same time frame.

GKN Driveline Chief Executive Officer, Phil Swash, said: “The growth of vehicle electrification is accelerating faster in China than anywhere else globally, so it is a logical step for GKN and SDS to establish China as a major hub for the development and production of eDrive systems.”