FARMINGTON HILLS, Mich.--Flex announced today that it has been awarded an Automotive News Innovation Partnership PACE Award for its game-changing collaboration with the electric vehicle manufacturer NIO on the Interior User Experience for the NIO ES6 and ES8 models. Flex was a Finalist in 2017, but this is the first PACE Award win for the company.
“I’m proud to say that this collaboration between Flex and NIO served as a milestone as the first of its kind and is setting a new standard for the automotive market,” said Chris Obey, president of Automotive at Flex. “The automotive supply chain ecosystem is changing; the one-on-one relationship between a supplier and an OEM is evolving to allow new entrants such as Silicon Valley software and autonomous technology companies to team up with automotive suppliers and OEMs to bring new innovations to the market. Flex is uniquely qualified to play a leading role in this evolving ecosystem, fulfilling multiple roles as a hardware supplier, integrator, and manufacturing automotive grade at scale.”
For the past 25 years, the Automotive News Premier Automotive Suppliers’ Contribution to Excellence (PACE) Awards have honored superior innovation, technological advancement and business performance among automotive suppliers. The Innovation Partnership Awards are received only by PACE Award nominees who have made a strategic difference in partnering to get supplier innovations successfully to market for OEM customers. These awards, judged by an independent panel of technologists, are recognized around the world as the industry benchmark for innovation.
The Interior User Experience integrates three revolutionary products to enhance a vehicle’s interior- the Intelligent Overhead Console (iOHC™), the first overhead console to integrate a camera monitoring system; Airbender, an advanced cockpit domain controller, and NOMI, the world’s first in-vehicle artificial intelligent system. The Interior User Experience has been integrated into the NIO ES8 - a seven-seater high-performance electric SUV, and the ES6 - a high performance, long-range intelligent electric SUV.
“This partnership was powered by innovation, an important part of the value Flex offers to our customers,” Obey said. “As the only pure EV company in full-scale production in China, NIO is a pioneer in China’s premium electric vehicle market, and Flex is the Sketch-to-Scale innovative solutions provider. Together, we’re creating game-changing automotive technologies. The impact of this collaboration, and the EVs it will help produce, is extremely significant in progressing the evolution of the automotive industry.”
The PACE Awards were held on April 8, 2019 at the Max M. and Marjorie S. Fisher Music Center in Detroit.
About Flex Ltd.
Flex is the Sketch-to-Scale® solutions provider that designs and builds intelligent products globally. With approximately 200,000 employees across 30 countries, Flex provides innovative design, engineering, manufacturing, real-time supply chain insight and logistics services to companies of all sizes across industries and markets. For more information, visit flex.com or follow us on Twitter @Flexintl. Flex – Live SmarterTM
