A consortium of eight Slovenian car companies form consortium for development

A consortium of eight Slovenian car companies was formed in Ljubljana to reduce R&D investment risks and follow the trends in the global car industry. The SiEVA consortium includes companies Hidria, Cimos, Kolektor, Iskra Avtoelektrika, Iskra Mehanizmi, MLM, Polycom and TPV. The name is an abbreviation for 'synergetic, environmentally friendly, safe car'. The company will strive for development of internal combustion engines, hybrids and electric engines, passenger safety and comfort, and production excellence.

The companies invested some EUR 20m in the project and are hoping to get the same amount from the state through a public call for applications for development centres. They also committed to investing over EUR 250m in industrialisation in the next three to five years.

The companies' contribution to SiEVA was determined based on investment potential of each individual company. Kolektor, Cimos, Iskra Avtoelektrika and Hidria thus contributed 80% of the capital (20% each), mostly in own funds but also in equipment.

SiEVA is expected to create some 1,500 jobs and 20 new patent solutions for state-of-the-art environmentally friendly vehicles. The new company will employ 50 top development experts. As part of the project, the eight companies will also propose the opening of new study programmes to meet their needs for staff. The CEO of the new company, which will be based in Sempeter pri Gorici, will be Milos Sturm of Hidria. Ludvik Kumar of Kolektor and Robert Zerjal of Iskra Avtoelektrika will also be in the management.

The global car industry is undergoing a small transition with the introduction of hybrids and electric cars, "which creates room for new players and we want to take advantage of this", Kolektor CEO Radovan Bolko commented on the setting up of SiEVA. The partnership is bringing tremendous potential to Slovenia's car industry, Edvin Sever of Iskra Avtoelektrika said. The companies united in SiEVA generate EUR 1.5bn in revenues a year and employ 16,000 people, 900 of which are researchers and developers.

"We want to create a leading development core of the Slovenian car industry. Without development, we'd have nothing to produce in five years," Sever said. The consortium will also decrease the risks related to investments in R&D, Cimos head Franc Krasovec added. These risks "take" around 9% of the sales revenues per product, which means that if a product is on sale for eight to ten years, the company loses a year's revenues.

News source: Slovenian Times link: article