[2] 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.

Heyman's technology improved battery life for frequent start-stop runs of electric vehicles at low speeds.

With the Sevcon Ltd. UK head office situated opposite the automotive centre of Gateshead College on the Team Valley trading estate.

In 2017 at the time of the acquisition by BorgWarner, Sevcon had additional sales and engineering facilities in France, Japan, South Korea and China.

At various times it outsourced much of the manufacture of its components to Fideltronik in Poland, SRX in Malaysia and KeyTronic in Mexico & China.