Geelybolag warns 180 in Gothenburg – changes direction

On Tuesday morning Cevt staff, today just over 2,000 people among consultants, will be informed that the company announces 180 jobs. The reason is that the company is changing direction within Geely. The company, which started in 2013, has developed CMA, a common physical platform around which compact car models from Volvo, Polestar, Lynk & Co and Geely are built.

– As we change direction, redundancy arises. The 180-post ad is a ceiling, now MBL negotiations are starting with the union, says Cevts CEO Mats Fägerhag.

– We have had a skill change throughout the journey, but in our new assignment we will need cutting edge skills that we cannot achieve with a skill change alone.

Is the corona pandemic a factor?

– Covid-19 has affected the advisory now, it has affected the entire world economy. But the real change that the warning is based on we would have had to make anyway, is just that covid-19 has made it go faster.

The company will also reduce the number of consultants.

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Cevt changed direction a couple of years ago

When asked which groups are affected by the ad, Fägerhag explains that he does not want to precede union negotiations, but it is clear that the company will have less to do in developing automotive hardware. In addition to developing the platform architecture, Cevt has also developed the first car models for the new Geely Lynk & Co brand, which was thus created in Lindholmen. Although Cevt is tasked with continuing to develop models for Lynk & Co in Europe, they don’t do everything from ear to bread as before.

– A couple of years ago, we also got a larger role within Geely, where we became an innovation hub for the entire group. We develop not only for Volvo and Geely, but also for Lotus, for example, says Mats Fägerhag.

Last year, a division between hardware development and software development was made in the company and a software manager was hired.

– Software and information technologies are becoming an increasing part of vehicles and there are completely different development cycles between hardware and software. Hardware development has lead times of perhaps 24 months, while software can have development cycles of three weeks; these are completely different conditions.

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The gel group has matured

At the same time, the platforms (or architecture) that Cevt developed for Volvo and Geely have become a business in which competition is also found to a greater extent in other parts of the industry group, explains Fägerhag.

– When we created Cevt, it started from a need that was great at that time, when Geely bought Volvo, there were many intellectual property rights that belonged to Ford, who braked the wheels. Therefore, it was necessary to quickly produce a motherboard for the smaller Volvo and Geely cars.

– In the industrial group, a certain degree of maturity has now been reached when it comes to traditional cars and car architecture. The Geely group’s need for this technology, compared to traditional cars, is somewhat less than before. Therefore, in dialogue with An Conghui and others in the group, I have developed a new direction. We will be a “center of excellence” for mobility solutions, that is our long-term role in the group, says Mats Fägerhag.

An Conghui is Chairman of the Board of Cevt and CEO of Geely Auto; In this context, Geely Group is the entire industry group that includes Volvo Cars, Geely and all brands.

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Much focus on software development

The mobility solutions that Cevt has for a couple of years started to focus on related areas like software updates for connected cars, infotainment, autonomous driving technology, interior solutions, electric operation.

– All these areas refer to software, which is increasingly important.

What are you going to develop exactly?

– We are developing mobility vehicles, I don’t want to call it a car, which can be used by the entire Geely Group and the brands included therein. This is not a concept but a complete vehicle for the market.

This may sound a bit confusing to ordinary car owners?

– I can not give more details on when and how, will come later. But it is a different vehicle than a privately owned car. When you go to work, for example, you can request a ride and the vehicle can take you there with an increasing degree of autonomous driving technology and the interior is flexible so that you can work on it, for example. These are the transport solutions that will be applied in the future.

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How does this relate to the Volvo and Geely merger that Volvo Cars CEO Håkan Samuelsson was commissioned to investigate?

– I cannot comment on what can be concluded about this merger, but what I can say is that the whole group is behind the change of approach that we have in Cevt, where Gothenburg acquires an important role.

From the Union side, club president Lars Pettersson comments on the message:

– When it comes to the real focus on the company, we understand the management and the idea of ​​Mats Fägerhag, it is important to stand out within Geely. I think they thought right there. As far as the announcement goes, it is brand new, where the negotiations must show where we land; I can say that we have many highly competent employees.

– Now we will enter into negotiations, I want to emphasize that there is a difference between notification and dismissals. We will safeguard the interests of our members in negotiations. We will also negotiate the strategy and organization of the company, says Robert Moestam, president of the Swedish Engineers / Academics club at Cevt.