Canoo has a more traditional frame, axle, and suspension setup than REE. The electric motors go where a differential would be in an ICE car, so the front and back sections are higher than the middle. REE is flat everywhere except the corners and their swappable corner modules contain all the moving parts (suspension, motors, brakes, steering, axles, wheel hub).
All of these “skateboard“ type designs allow a lot of flexibility for passnegers and cargo and they give a low center of mass, but they are essentially going back to the old-style body-on-frame concept, which tends to be much heavier than the more modern unibody car frame (like Aptera). A flat skateboard is just not the ideal shape structurally.
@Biff They're only heavier if steel is the primary material - and most skateboard systems seem to be designed to use interchangeable composite-built bodies, or to become the structural base of a unibody design.
Yes, you could build an aluminum skateboard that was lighter than a steel unibody, but for a given material, a unibody will be lighter. The Aptera composite unibody structural frame only weighs about 200 lbs and provides both the main structural connection between the front and rear subframes, the occupant safety cell, acoustic and thermal insulation, some of the actual external skin, and direct support for the non-structural body panels. So highly efficient use of materials and improved crash protection compared to skateboards/body-on-frame designs, but no flexibility.
I think a moment of wild brain storming just might be in order. I think there is a comfortable market out there for Aptera like kits. That would be drive train(s), suspension components, batteries, and, of course, the holy grail - Software. Body and main chassis would be the buyers responsibility.
The motor in the wheels, once demonstrated, is going to be a game changer in the limited production transportation world. You heard it here today.
Is this really that different from the Canoo system?
@caseymccarty What @Biff said.
Canoo has a more traditional frame, axle, and suspension setup than REE. The electric motors go where a differential would be in an ICE car, so the front and back sections are higher than the middle. REE is flat everywhere except the corners and their swappable corner modules contain all the moving parts (suspension, motors, brakes, steering, axles, wheel hub).
All of these “skateboard“ type designs allow a lot of flexibility for passnegers and cargo and they give a low center of mass, but they are essentially going back to the old-style body-on-frame concept, which tends to be much heavier than the more modern unibody car frame (like Aptera). A flat skateboard is just not the ideal shape structurally.
@Biff They're only heavier if steel is the primary material - and most skateboard systems seem to be designed to use interchangeable composite-built bodies, or to become the structural base of a unibody design.
Yes, you could build an aluminum skateboard that was lighter than a steel unibody, but for a given material, a unibody will be lighter. The Aptera composite unibody structural frame only weighs about 200 lbs and provides both the main structural connection between the front and rear subframes, the occupant safety cell, acoustic and thermal insulation, some of the actual external skin, and direct support for the non-structural body panels. So highly efficient use of materials and improved crash protection compared to skateboards/body-on-frame designs, but no flexibility.
I think a moment of wild brain storming just might be in order. I think there is a comfortable market out there for Aptera like kits. That would be drive train(s), suspension components, batteries, and, of course, the holy grail - Software. Body and main chassis would be the buyers responsibility.
The motor in the wheels, once demonstrated, is going to be a game changer in the limited production transportation world. You heard it here today.
Cheers,