Apollo Future Mobility Group: Changing The Face of Automobile Industry Through EV Technology

A majority of today’s automobiles contribute to the depleting natural resources and pollution of the environment. Thanks to several technological advances, however, the automotive industry is experiencing a significant transition toward the development of electric vehicles (EVs) that pave a path for a sustainable future. Also, vehicles powered by internal combustion engines consist of more mechanical moving parts than their electric counterpart, which increases the associated manufacturing time and production overheads while also being prone to more significant mechanical serviceability concerns. Compared to a typical automobile, an EV requires fewer moving parts to operate, boosting the power-to-weight ratio while emitting no hazardous emissions. However, producing sophisticated components for an EV could turn out to be a time-consuming process that extends a vehicle’s time to market, which is a major challenge faced by the automotive industry. To save manufacturing time, producers are progressively outsourcing the majority of the operations and modules required to build an EV. And, many automobile manufacturers have adopted engineering service outsourcing (ESO) to eliminate the mundane tasks of developing components for an EV. Having said that, not all engineering services outsourcing (ESO) providers posses the necessary experience and engineering competence to address the varying requirements of automotive OEMs; very few possess the right combination of skills and engineering excellence to stay relevant at the top.

Apollo Future Mobility Group (AFMG) is a leading company, which stands out in the ESO market for its R&D and engineering proficiency, offering its auto clients a broad spectrum of skills and technological services. AFMG assists numerous major automotive brands such as Audi, BMW, Porsche, and many more by providing ESO services. With its multi-use outsourcing platform for new model development, the company covers ideation, interior and exterior design, advanced engineering, simulation and pre-production prototyping, in turn empowering automotive manufacturers to reduce the time to market of EVs substantially.

Founded in 2002, the company has acquired multinational assets solely dedicated to revolutionizing the mobility industry. Under the AFMG umbrella, the company diversifies its business operations into two distinctive verticals: Apollo Automobil and Apollo Advanced Technologies, with a global presence throughout Hong Kong, China, Germany, Japan, the UK, and the US. Apollo Automobil, a hyper car development business, launched Apollo IE in 2016, which received a positive response globally for its combination of aerodynamic efficiency and high revving naturally aspirated v-12.

The other business unit of AFMG is Apollo Advanced Technologies (AAT), which conducts mobility technology research and development that can be used in its products or licensed to third parties. Current EVs mostly use a 400-volt insulated-gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) inverter that checks discrepancies such as slow charging, overheating, and more while necessitating a sizable cooling system to prevent heating issues. As a substantial improvement over these current standards, the AFMG research and development team is working on an 800-volt silicon carbide ("SiC") power train system that consists of a dual 800-volt SiC inverter and motor. It would potentially charge vehicles in less than ten minutes with minimal heating issues. “This is a technology we believe will be widely used by the global auto brands,” states Richard Sung, CEO of AFMG. The company’s technology is a 7-in-1 inverter, which is more than 50 percent smaller in size compared to current inverters used in EVs. Moreover, the firm has garnered substantial experience in building EVs with one of its Japanese subsidiaries, having developed and produced the lightest EV to date in the world. The company is scheduled to unveil its second-generation EV later this year.

In addition to the two operating business units, AFMG also makes considerable investments in mobility technology-related firms. Along these lines, the company supports many automotive ventures under its banner, as well as various renowned subsidiaries. Divergent 3D, a US-based peripheral company of AFMG, invented two game-changing technologies. One of them is a 3D metal printer, which is ten times quicker than standard printers. Divergent 3D also developed a reduced-weight alloy without compromising on hardness properties, allowing lighter vehicles to be produced; the alloy is a tried-and-true material that has successfully passed crash testing. Owing to these merits, several auto brands have adopted the material and are using it in their product design workflows. ‘‘The thing I’m really proud of is the assembly system that Divergent has developed, known as the Divergent Adaptive Production System (DAPSTM),” adds Sung. The DAPSTM has revolutionized the automotive sector, decreasing initial investment capital needed by a third while simultaneously reducing an EV’s development cycle time.

The AFMG consortium also owns a residential charging infrastructure business known as EV Power in China, spanning over 28 cities with more than 23000 charging piles across the country. The organization is getting ready to introduce this charging infrastructure all over the world to improve charging facilities globally. Collectively, the company is transforming the automobile industry while taking the world one step closer to a sustainable future, owing to its proactive part in ESO and technology development.