Rapid growth in electrification is driving a seismic shift in how the automotive industry builds cars. But an even more fundamental change is taking place thanks to e-mobility, says Daniel Barel, Co-Founder and CEO of electric vehicle platform maker REE
When Henry Ford started building cars, his factory made all components. From the four-cylinder engine to its vanadium alloy steel, production took place under one roof because there was no alternative. Demand was so high that Ford concentrated solely on the Model T, famously stating “any customer can have a car painted any colour they want so long as it is black.”
To grow, Ford realised the business would have to outsource – and the automotive supply chain was born. Some years later, Toyota pioneered Just-In-Time (JIT), a process that synchronised production and logistics to maximise manufacturing efficiency, moving automotive supply chain forward again.
Over a decade later, the industry is facing a seismic change in the way it makes cars. An EV is very different to an ICE car, for instance – and the traditional outsourcing process has meant that many OEMs are without critical internally-developed pieces of technology, since EV components are often manufactured by Tier1 and Tier2s and seen as commodity items. Many OEMs choose to concentrate on battery and autonomous technology instead.
Flat battery-pack chassis promises EV design freedom
There is also a global shift in mobility. Brands that once resided with the OEM on a physical vehicle are moving to the service provider. Order an Uber or Lyft and one might not actually care which make or model arrives. The same can be said of the FedEx or Amazon van that delivers your parcel as the van has their logo on its side – so the service provider’s brand is now the leading one.
Last but not least, OEMs are struggling to forecast and design future vehicles, because the shift is happening so quickly. This is mainly due to the legacy process of developing a car’s platform, which is lengthy and expensive. OEMs used to be able to forecast 10-15 years, giving them enough time to design and develop next generation platforms. But now they risk being left behind, with New Mobility players emerging faster, launching next generation vehicles.
With the traditional model of OEM, Tier1, Tier2 outdated, a new structure is required. At REE, we’ve spent many years thinking about this and building it quietly but fiercely behind the scenes.
We call it ‘The Three Layers’ and believe it is how the industry will evolve. The concept is that all layers work together as one, creating services and capabilities according to customer needs with specific, tailormade vehicles.
- The first layer is the Platform Provider – the company which makes or develops the EV ‘skateboard’ chassis. This is the blank canvas the service will be run on.
- The second layer is the Service Provider – the company which develops and runs the service (for example, autonomous ride hailing or delivery services).
- The third layer is the Data Provider – the company which provides the communication, cloud computing and cyber security that this new world vitally needs.
As history teaches us, pioneers who are first to conquer these markets will grow to be the next giants. And the key to this transformation is focus. No single company, as big and powerful as it may be, can lead all three layers. New mobility companies must concentrate on one layer in order to provide their customers with a truly revolutionary product.
We have a clear vision – we know our layer. We have designed an EV platform that is modular and scalable so it can support any service or design. Our REEcorner modules integrate all drivetrain, powertrain, suspension and steering components into the arch of the wheel – a by-wire control system that carries a totally flat, autonomous-ready EV platform.
We are not constrained by a legacy supply chain and enormous CAPEX investments in need of return. Instead we have built a global network of Tier1 partners, giving us access to hundreds of production lines. This also gives us access to their incredible expertise, speeding up development, and again to their production facilities, utilising spare capacity.
Already we are seeing change. Toyota’s commercial vehicle division, HINO, announced its shift to Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS) last year, choosing to concentrate on building a service eco-system based on a very large variety of mission-specific vehicles, all built on an advanced ‘skateboard’ chassis named the FlatFormer, developed with REE. For Toyota, the brand value moves from the first layer to the second.
Henry Ford’s approach to manufacturing made him a true pioneer. Our vision is that if once the motto was “Any customer can have a car painted any colour that he wants so long as it is black” the future motto should be “you can have any vehicle you like. No matter what the colour”.
Daniel Barel is Co-Founder and CEO of electric vehicle platform maker REE
Thanks Daniel for defining the clear views on future mobility aspect.
Strongly agreed with your points. Future of mobility is three layer’s concept.
I would add Battery Provider (the soul of an EV) as the fourth layer
This has already already existed for decades, multi vehicles on one platform. 20 years ago Volkswagen, had the golf platform that formed Golf, Golf plus, Golf Estate, Beetle, Caddy, Audi A3, Skoda Octavia, and the estate, and then Seat models and some Cabriolets. They just had different bodies on the same chassis/drive train base.
So throwing and Apple or an android in the car does not make it that different really? or have missed something?
The elephant in the room is not the lack of engineering innovation relating to the vehicles, excellent as it is,as they are, and the need to move away from fossil fuels, but the complete lack of viable charging and energy infrastructure. It doesn’t matter how fancy the vehicles are if we can’t get them recharged in a reasonable time or provide hydrogen, and particularly in rural remote areas they are not going to be bought! Fossil fuel vehicles did not take off until the ability to refuel practically was installed.
The main problem is that there is no overall strategy or standard in place. If there was one thing to come out of this, that would be for all charging would be done via induction in the road. That way there would not be a need for extra battery capacity on vehicles. You just need enough to give you around 100 miles range. Also it means no one has to stop to charge on a journey & no problems trying to charge outside your house or flat. The other problem is why do you need brakes and drive trains on an electric car. If you scrap or the stuff off an ICE car that you don’t need, an electric car should be cheaper than an ICE car. This would make them less expensive to buy.
There is no certainty of an electric car future. Weight and raw materials cost is an issue Blu gas may be a better option and can utilise the current fuel distribution network. at least the model described can use a universal battery because, without 10 minute change-over the electric car is doomed. Home charging will place an extraordinary load on the grid so back to square one in energy production. Economic hydrogen production is still a challenge. The flat chassis is certainly the future, it does require a huge shift in automotive management thinking. This will be in my opinion the obstacle because the build-up from the chassis could quite easily become a new kind of cottage industry which would fragment the big players and we could go back to many hundreds of smaller “Makes and Models”. Narrow “Uni Technologies” denies the reality of the modern world.
Ultimately EVs should be a lot cheaper than ICEs and common platforms will help. Most things on an EV are down to software, even dispensing with differentials and gearboxes if each wheel is independently driven via individual motors and drive shafts.
The elephant in the room is the environment.
Not because of fossil fuel – we all agree that carbon is very bad for the planet. Nor is it the charging time – we all get used to charging our phones overnight. Nor is it the generation capacity – the UK has about 60GW installed capacity that will be stretched so either the price will rise to astronomic levels or we will have to start building. Today would be a good idea, 10 years ago even better but that’s the cost of privatising generation.
No, it is the battery question. And not even the weight of these battery packs, which can be 500kg or more – the entire weight of a small car – and carrying this pack around costs a lot.
A typical EV needs a battery pack of some 2-3000 18650 (similar to AA sized) cells per 100 mile range. There are 27 million cars registered in the UK – approximately a billion world wide. If only 10% of UK cars are replaced by EVs in the next few years with mid-range vehicles capable of 200 miles, some 13.5 billion cells will be required. 1% of world cars (many poorer countries will not have the infrastructure and those hyper-reliable Toyotas will carry on for years yet) will required half a trillion cells.
Each cell contains lithium, cobalt and other minerals which are generally available from quite unstable and corrupt parts of the world. Manufacturing of Li-ion cells is dominated by China but there are alternative technologies such as Na-ion but even so that is one massive transport and manufacturing problem.
But is it less than half the environmental issue because at present these battery packs last about 7 years. It is ‘promised’ that this will be extended to 10-20 years but even so, eventually the car’s range will drop off and people will replace the battery pack. In the end we will have trillions of batteries PER YEAR to recycle that will need transport and processing. Where will this be done? Where will the waste be stored? What can be rescued?
This is the reason why Japan in particular has been looking at hydrogen production, how to improve it and store it. We can do this in the UK where H2 can replace our North Sea gas (with modifications to burners) particularly as the North Sea is running out of gas anyway. And cheap reliable H2 storage is coming using new technology that does not require quite the pressure vessels. But we have to get real about EVs.
We are looking to change our diesel car next year – but I wouldn’t go for an EV apart from the charging issue. We will go for a petrol hybrid so that most journeys are electric but we can still go for the odd long distance. Yes, it would require the occasional visit to a petrol station but with 150+ mpg, I can tolerate that. At least we will be able to drive to the southern Italy on less than a tank. 🙂
The Lithium Sulphur battery has been around for a good while and has a significantly higher energy density than most other types. The problem is that nobody has yet managed to commercialise it yet. This is not my field (‘railway control systems’ is) so I was really seeking a more informed comment on Li-S batteries.