Flat platform. Flatter price.
The next generation in EV design, predicted to greatly reduce the cost of manufacturing, is slated to receive a big boost from an Israeli start-up.
Israeli start-up REE is well on its way toward producing the components for a new form of electric vehicle (EV) with a lightweight, skateboard-like frame that is far less expensive to make than present EVs. Although it will not be building complete vehicles, the company is offering the components in the U.S. as well as internationally, and intends to have this new technology on the road by 2021.
The battery pack, motor and driving controls in REE’s new design are integrated in the flush floor, allowing for independent steering of wheels. According to the start-up’s website, this “disruptive’ technology also enables “multiple body configurations on a single platform, increasing volume and efficiency…”
Finding support from traditional auto partners
REE emerged from stealth mode last year, and is now working with Toyota-affiliated truck maker Hino, as well as Mitsubishi Corp. and Fiat Chrysler. Additionally, KYB Corp. of Japan, one of the world’s biggest makers of shock absorbers, is now in the process of forming a partnership with the Tel Aviv-based company to develop suspension capabilities for electric vehicles that will be built off REE’s platform.
KYB is “excited to partner with REE Automotive and share its revolutionary EV vision by engineering a suspension subsystem that supports the needs of tomorrow’s mobility ecosystem,” Kazunori Masumoto, KYB’s general manager of engineering, said in a statement.
Time for a change?
Rivian, automotive tech firm Canoo, and the U.K.’s Arrival have promoted flat platforms for a range of battery-powered vehicles. But, according to REE co-founder and CEO Daniel Barel, REE takes it farther.
“We’re not only 33% lighter, but we’re almost 70% smaller in footprint” relative to Tesla Model 3, with the same interior volume, Barel explained to Forbes for an article on his company. “To keep on building vehicles the same way we’ve been doing it for a hundred years doesn't make a lot of sense.”