REE Automotive partners with Japanese KYB to develop next-gen EV platform – EQ Mag
REE Automotive and KYB Corporation, a suspension manufacturer, have together announced a new strategic partnership to gear up for the future of motoring.
Japanese suspension manufacturer KYB Corporation and REE Automotive have announced a new strategic partnership to gear up for the future of motoring. The new partnership is supposed to help both companies develop a new scalable electric vehicle platform to suit a variety of automobile applications, ranging from cars and SUVs to MUVs and last-mile delivery vehicles, as well as heavy-duty EV logistics. REE also sees the platform capable of catering to autonomous vehicles and Robo taxis.
The platform in question is a scalable e-mobility platform that packs a lithium-ion battery pack in the backbone of the REE chassis, which is the floor. REE Automotive thinks that this setup has huge potential, as it will give anyone procuring chassis complete design freedom for their automobile, as the REE platform is flat, modular, and scalable. The KYB angle comes into play here regarding something that REE has patented as the REEcorner. REEcorner is an architectural solution for the platform, which accommodates the electric motor on each wheel with steering, braking, and suspension systems, all packed into the wheel itself. This is what gives the car a completely flat chassis. This setup does not only improve the modular nature – an inherent trait of EV platforms – but also improves performance and safety.
This dramatically alters the unsprung mass of a vehicle, due to heavy battery-packed floors of EVs – it’s a radical change in suspension systems, which, until now had evolved to only serve the internal combustion engine vehicles.
‘KYB has vast experience in developing and manufacturing advanced suspension systems, and we are 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’ said Kazunori Masumoto, General Manager of Engineering Headquarters at KYB Automotive Component Business Division.
Source: PTI
