Shift Magazine - March 2021 - S13

Ree Automotive integrated important
vehicle components into the arch of
the wheel to carry its flat and modular
skateboard platform.

" The flatness of [our platform] eliminates all of these brackets. We have hundreds less parts in this because we don't
have a steering column. We don't have
strut towers. We don't have all these
items that are maintenance, noisy, take
up space, " he added.
" It's a lot easier to perfect a new manufacturing method and it's much more
efficient, which reduces cost as well as
ecological impact, not to mention shipping in parts. "
Traditional automakers are " doing more
[modifications] to an ICE chassis, versus
really spending the time and money to
re-create something totally different,
which is why there's so much demand
for this type of a platform. "
" We actually wanted to do something
very different, " Aquila said.
" It's to not compete with Tesla, but
to build something that has multiple use
cases and that can be adapted to the use
cases. "
Aside from the vehicle architecture,
there are other changes in manufacturing
that can accelerate the shift to EVs, said
Craig Renneker, vice president, driveline
product engineering at American Axle
and Manufacturing, during Automotive
News' Shift Mobility Forum, which was
part of CES in January.
The key is making things smaller to
reduce certain materials needs and cut

Canoo says its driver-forward interior and high roof height help maximize cargo space.

costs, Renneker said.
" What we're seeing at American Axle
is a trend to making the motors substantially faster so they can get smaller, "
Renneker said.
" A faster motor makes the same
power at a much smaller size, and smaller
size means less copper, less rare magnets, less steel. That innovation to drive
the cost down will also just reduce the

amount we're going to need of all of
those critical materials. "
Much of the success of EVs is dependent on those innovations.
" In my world, things have got to get a
lot cheaper, " Renneker said. " We've got
to be able to make drive units, and the
rest of the vehicle, less expensive, so
it's going to be more affordable for that
mass-market customer. " n
march 2021 * shift

Shift Magazine - March 2021

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Shift Magazine - March 2021