SF Motors Shows Electric SUVs Planned for 2019 Release

SF Motors' SF5 at home (PRNewsfoto/SF Motors)

SF Motors, which last year acquired Tesla co-founder Martin Eberhard’s battery modularization startup, revealed this week its first two vehicles.

The Chinese automaker, a subsidiary of Sokon Motors, showed off the SF5 and SF7, luxury electric crossovers it plans to deliver in 2019. The vehicles will be manufactured at the former AM General plant in Indiana that previously produced vehicles like the Hummer H2 and Mercedes R Class.

“We consider our U.S. plant in Indiana and our China facility in Chongqing to be among the most automated plants in the world, with partners that are the world’s foremost leaders in manufacturing and a newly trained U.S. team that will operate one of the most innovative and technically advanced EV plants in the US,” SF Motors Chief Production Officer Jim Finn said in a release.

SF Motors has created a proprietary powertrain that includes custom motors, gearboxes, battery cells and packs, as well as electronic controllers, which it says provides control and flexibility in the design of vehicles. A flexible motor system enables vehicle design using one, two, three, or four motor configurations. At the top end, the four-motor system will deliver over 1000 HP, meaning vehicles can accelerate from 0 to 60 mph in under 3 seconds. The SF5 has a projected 300 miles of range.

The vehicles will also be equipped with sensors and other hardware to perform autonomous driving functions.

The company expects factories to be online by the third quarter and deliveries to happen by the end of the second quarter of 2019.

Eberhard’s company InEVit Inc. developed and patented a unique EV chassis architecture, battery module design innovations and manufacturing techniques it hopes will enable the EV industry to rapidly scale manufacturing of cost-and-feature-competitive vehicles. Eberhard now serve as Chief Innovation Officer and Vice Chairman of SF Motors’ Board. He left his role as Tesla CEO in 2008.

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