IT giant Hewlett Packard Enterprise is to work with electric car maker National Electric Vehicle Sweden (NEVS) to accelerate global electric car production.

Sales of the first NEVS EV will initially focus on China and Sweden, with expansion eventually planned to the rest of Europe and possibly the United States

HPE Enterprise Services will establish an end-to-end vehicle manufacturing solution that will provides flexibility to adapt to volatile market conditions.

NEVS, which was founded in 2012 and acquired the main assets of the former Saab Automobile company, is to start production from 2017 of a rebadged version of the former Saab 9-3 saloon with an electric drivetrain at its manufacturing plant in Trollhättan, Sweden. It’s planning to launch five electric cars by 2018.

The new HPE solution will replace the majority of NEVS’ existing manufacturing application landscape and will be used for both the Trollhättan plant and a new facility in Tianjin, China.

The globally standardised and integrated manufacturing IT platform will provide NEVS with the flexibility to adapt its operation to changing market conditions, and will provide full control and planning ability of the entire value chain from incoming order to final delivery of a vehicle.

“We are entering a highly competitive and disruptive market, so we need a partner who can both help us accelerate the setup of our electric vehicle production and give us the agility we need to quickly adapt,” said Mattias Bergman, president, NEVS. “Hewlett Packard Enterprise had the best-engineered solutions to enable us achieve these goals, and they convinced us with their technology leadership, collaborative approach and proven track record in the automotive industry.”