China Evergrande Group, the leading Chinese property developer, acquired a chassis architecture for electric vehicles jointly developed by German supplier Benteler Group and engineering firm FEV Group.
The deal will significantly accelerate its development of EV products, Evergrande said.
The two German companies transferred the chassis architecture and all the associated intellectual property rights to Evergrande on Tuesday.
The chassis, which took Benteler and FEV three and a half years to develop, features modular design and advanced powertrain, suspension, control and braking technology, Evergrande said.
The Chinese property developer didn’t disclose additional details about the deal.
After diversifying into the EV market in 2018, Evergrande has made a slew of deals with European companies to bolster its EV development capabilities.
In July, it formed a joint venture in Stuttgart with German automotive powertrain engineering company Hofer to develop powertrains for EVs.
It acquired several European companies this year: National Electric Vehicle Sweden, a Swedish company that bought the assets of bankrupt Saab Automobile in 2012 to build EVs on the Saab 9-3 platform, U.K. electric motor maker Protean Holdings Corp. and Dutch electric motor manufacturer e-Traction.
In June, Evergrande signed agreements with local governments to build major EV plants in the south China city of Guangzhou and northeast China city of Shenyang.
Evergrande, headquartered in the south China city of Shenzhen and listed in Hong Kong, posted net profit of 72 billion yuan ($10 billion) on revenue of 466 billion yuan for 2018.
