SF Motors is to open a new 130,000ft2 (39,624m2) R&D facility at the McCarthy Creekside Industrial Center in Milpitas, California, where it will be able to tap into Silicon Valley’s pool of top tier companies and engineering talent.
Chief technology officer Yifan Tang will head up the new facility, which will house R&D and low-volume manufacturing. Work will focus on battery, e-powertrain, and autonomous driving technologies including intelligent connectivity and user experience feature development.
“Adding to our existing R&D labs, experts at this new facility will conduct extensive design validation testing and low-volume manufacturing necessary to ensure a smooth transition to mass production of our batteries and electric powertrains, which are key components of our vehicles,” said Tang.
SF Motors will be the first tenant at McCarthy Creekside, McCarthy Ranch’s new Silicon Valley industrial manufacturing development. Recruitment will begin ahead of the opening of the facility at the end of 2018.
Last month, SF Motors gave a preview to its first intelligent electric vehicles, battery innovations, electric powertrain systems and ‘protective autonomy’ concepts.
After two years of assembling the manufacturing capabilities required, SF Motors will begin trial production of vehicles this year at its state-of-the-art facilities in Mishawaka, Indiana and Chongqing, China, targeting a total capacity of 200,000 units per year.