NATIONAL ELECTRIC VEHICLE SWEDEN AB

Their core work

NEVS is a Swedish electric vehicle manufacturer based in Trollhättan, built on the former Saab Automobile industrial site and assets. They develop and produce electric passenger vehicles and the underlying powertrain technology, with in-house capability in drivetrain engineering, power electronics, and vehicle-level integration. In EU projects they contribute as an industrial OEM partner — bringing automotive-grade validation, vehicle integration expertise, and a real production environment where research outputs can be tested at mass-manufacturing scale.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

With only two H2020 projects — both launched in 2017 — there is no meaningful before/after shift to report; the company's EU research footprint is essentially a single 2017-2021 window. Within that window, their clearly heavier engagement was on electric drivetrain technology (DRIVEMODE, EUR 2.57M) rather than automated driving (AUTOPILOT, EUR 0.43M). The signal is that NEVS invested EU R&D effort primarily into electrification hardware, with connected/automated driving as a smaller, complementary activity.

Their H2020 activity points toward electrified powertrains ready for production — a partner to consider for anyone industrialising EV drive components rather than for long-horizon basic research.

How they like to work

NEVS joined both of their H2020 projects as a participant, never as coordinator, which is consistent with an OEM contributing vehicle integration capability rather than running the consortium. The two projects were unusually large in consortium size — 65 unique partners across 18 countries from just two projects — meaning they are comfortable working inside wide, complex European consortia. For a collaborator, this suggests they are reachable as an industrial validation partner but will not typically take administrative lead.

Across two projects NEVS connected with 65 distinct partners in 18 countries, indicating broad pan-European exposure concentrated in large Innovation Action and RIA consortia. The spread is European rather than Nordic-local, though Sweden remains their operational base.

What sets them apart

NEVS is rare among H2020 participants in being a full vehicle OEM with a complete production site in Trollhättan (the former Saab plant), not a Tier-1 supplier or research institute. That means a consortium partnering with them can take a component from lab prototype to integration in an actual electric passenger car, with real automotive validation standards applied. Few other Swedish organisations combine EV manufacturing capacity with openness to EU collaborative research.

Highlights from their portfolio

• DRIVEMODE
  Their largest H2020 engagement by far (EUR 2.57M) and directly aligned with their core business — modular distributed EV drivetrains using high-speed motors and SiC inverters aimed at mass manufacturing.
• AUTOPILOT
  Shows NEVS reaching beyond pure hardware into IoT-based automated driving, signalling interest in software-defined and connected vehicle layers.