please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . unsourced material may be challenged and removed . august 2016 learn how and when to remove this template message sevcon trading name sevcon inc. former tech ops sevcon before 2011 type public traded as nasdaq sev industry electric vehicles founded gateshead april 4 1961 1961 04 04 founder sir horace william heyman headquarters gateshead ne11 0qa area served worldwide products microprocessor controls for electric vehicles revenue 26.053 million 2010 profit 329 000 2010 owner tech ops inc. number of employees 101 79 in the uk 12 in usa website sevcon sevcon is an electrical engineering company based in gateshead in the uk that manufactures controls for electric vehicles . contents 1 history 1.1 worldwide 1.2 public company 2 structure 3 products 4 references 5 external links history edit it was founded in 1961 as sevcon engineering ltd. the company was formed to develop technology originated by horace william heyman 13 march 1912 4 september 1998 who had been managing director of smith electric vehicles from 1949 until 1964 . it was the largest manufacturer of electric vehicles in europe . his technology improved battery life for frequent start stop runs of electric vehicles at low speeds . there were always large electrical losses on starting an electric vehicle because of electrical resistances heating up . the technology allowed a 20 % reduction in battery size for equivalent power or increased battery length or power for a standard sized battery . an electric vehicle would have had resistances to drop the voltage on the motor when starting but this created heating . his technology employed semiconductor controlled rectifiers with a semiconductor oscillator which provided pulses of electrical power to power the motor . it won the queen s award to industry in april 1970 and the queen s awards for export in april 1975 . a new factory opened in june 1970 at gateshead . worldwide edit it opened its first subsidiary in 1968 in paris . in 1969 it was bought by tech ops of the usa . public company edit in 1988 it was listed on the usa stock exchange then joined the nasdaq capital market in 2009 . structure edit the head office is situated opposite the automotive centre of gateshead college . it outsources much of the manufacture of its components to key tronic of the usa . a uk site manufactures film capacitors . its competitors include danaher s motion division and general electric . in 2010 it spent around 3 million in research and development at gateshead . products edit it makes microprocessor controllers for electric vehicles . references edit external links edit sevcon retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title sevcon & oldid 735574413 categories 1961 establishments in englandautomotive companies of the united kingdomautomotive electronicscompanies based in tyne and wearcompanies established in 1961companies listed on nasdaqelectrical engineering companies of the united kingdomelectric vehiclesgatesheadhidden categories articles lacking sources from august 2016all articles lacking sources navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages add links this page was last modified on 21 august 2016 at 17 47 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; additional terms may apply . by using this site you agree to the terms of use and privacy policy . wikipedia is a registered trademark of the wikimedia foundation inc. a non profit organization . privacy policy about wikipedia disclaimers contact wikipedia developers cookie statement mobile view