Friday, September 16, 2011

Green auto IP in joint venture



EVO Electric, a spin-out from Imperial College London previously referred to here and here, has recently set up a joint venture company with GKN Driveline, the world’s leading supplier of automotive driveline components.

Press releases suggest that EVO has licensed its IP to the joint venture company while GKN has contributed financing, engineering and commercial resources. The new company aims to capture a share of the rapidly growing market for hybrid and electric vehicle systems and, in the words of EVO CEO David Latimer, “will be pivotal in establishing EVO as a key player in the fast-growing global market for electric drive components”.

It will be interesting to see how much value EVO realises through this joint venture manufacturing business model. Company documentation suggests that EVO could simply sell its share in the joint venture company to GKN at some point in the future: EVO has already sold 25% of its own shares to GKN as part of the deal, GKN indicating the total value of its investment at closing to be £5 million consideration in cash.