The Israeli company REE Automotive, in collaboration with the suspension specialist of Japanese origin KYB Corporation, has presented a modular platform for electric cars. It differs from other proposals by integrating the motors, brakes, suspension, and steering in the steps of the wheel. A revolutionary design that stands out mainly for its flexibility.
Although numerous companies have already created electric cars with motors integrated into the wheels, this skate-board type platform goes one step further, allowing significant savings in space. The active suspension has an electric motor that controls an actuator connected to a damping system that can vary its firmness level.
Steering by cable eliminates the mechanical links that conventional cars tend to have. While the brakes are also by-wire. The result? An utterly flat platform that allows almost absolute freedom of design and huge use of space. This architecture has been specially developed for autonomous and delivery vehicles.
The platform is not ideal for high-performance models due to the high temperatures the braking system can reach and the specifications of the suspensions. However, this is not the objective of REE Automotive, which has preferred to focus its product on other types of vehicles.
This is just the latest example of the extremely high flexibility that dedicated power platforms allow. Companies such as Volkswagen have already stated that architectures such as its MEB platform allow greater use of space thanks to its wide wheelbase, its flat floor, etc. In any case, until now, most manufacturers have opted to integrate the motors in the axles and not in the wheels, while also retaining conventional suspension systems.