NAVYA (FR0013018041-Navya), an autonomous mobility systems leader, has announced the signing of a contract with Muses Europe for the assembly of 300 electric utility vehicles with the aim of participating in the development of a future autonomous version.
Muses, an innovative and efficient urban vehicle
The Muses urban vehicle is a polyvalent electric utility model capable of transporting large volumes, while emphasizing its agility and its facility to navigate around city centers. Its innovative design provides greater energy efficiency and increased range, while at the same time reducing the quantity of batteries necessary, thus their cost. Its central driving position,which covers left and right and provides a 240° view, along with the many driving assistance features on offer make it an ideal last mile delivery vehicle.
Muses Europe, where Ellectramobilys joins forces with large international players
The Muses project was designed by the Ellectramobilys engineering office for the use of transportation professionals seeking a vehicle that is not only perfectly adapted to moving goods around city centers and their surrounding areas, but that is also easy to use and energy efficient. It brings together a large number of international players:
- Yulon Group, the largest Taiwanese automotive conglomerate based more than sixty years’ expertise and a complete value chain, from construction to spare parts and from commercialization to vehicle related services,
- Speedy Group, the leading French car repair and maintenance company with 43 years’ experience and about 500 auto service centers across France, owned by the Bridgestone Corporation, a major tire manufacturer.
A French-produced vehicle
Muses Europe made the decision to engineer and manufacture its first series of vehicles with 80% of its added value from well-known French-based suppliers, including:
- NAVYA for the assembly of 300 vehicles and research leading to their automization;
- Calip Group for the production of the cabins;
- Bosch France, Mondeville, pour the assembly of the cabins;
- F2J Stampingfor the production of the chassis.
The first pre-series of 300 Muses will be assembled by NAVYA at its Vénissieux plant near Lyon, which will enable Navya, on the one hand, to optimize their production capacity and, on the other, allow Navya to strengthen their understanding of the vehicle’s industrial processes with an eye to its future automization. The Muses project forms an integral part of NAVYA’s roadmap which aims at integrating our AD packs in existing rolling bases.
Damien Biro, Chairman of Muses Europe: “The Muses utility vehicles are the result of a collaborative effort which brought together technical expertise, an open approach and the general mindset of the automotive industry with the aim of developing an electric vehicle platform designed to reduce battery need. The thinking behind our modular platform enables the co-development and industrialization and of scalable solutions with partners of all types and from all corners of the world. With an eye on the important place autonomous mobility will occupy in the years to come, it was considered essential to set in motion the automization process straight away. We are glad to partner with NAVYA on this key project, a company that has globally recognized expertise in autonomous mobility and is the only player on the market that combines two skills: the ability to integrate AD packs on an existing platform and the industrial logic to manufacture vehicles.“
Sophie Desormière, CEO of Navya: “NAVYA is proud to participate on this project which is triply innovative, through its design, its environmental responsibility and its partners and ecosystems selected in the interest of reducing supply chains.It underlines the challenge facing all automakers to prepare today for tomorrow’s automized vehicle platforms. NAVYA has the advantage of being able to put its expertise at their disposal and to work hand-in-hand with them to build a roadmap toward automization. Our aim is to integrate our technologies on third-party platforms in response to increased market expectations and to move toward a large-scale economic model.”