E-Mobility Engineering 019 | In conversation: Stephen Lambert l WAE EVR l Battery case materials focus l Quality control insight l Clipper Automotive Clipper Cab digest l Optimising battery chemistries insight l Powertrain testing focus

22 May/June 2023 | E-Mobility Engineering 0-100 kph in just less than 2 seconds. All this is contained within a platform weighing just under 1800 kg. By developing and offering the EVR, WAE sees itself as providing the chassis and powertrain engineering in a base that has the flexibility to meet the body parameters of different start-ups. As a result, out of the 3 years typically required to develop a new low-volume EV, at least a year should be cut from start-ups’ r&d times and associated costs by building their halo on top of the EVR instead of developing their own chassis and powertrain in-house. “Of course, the EVR also works as a platform for us to put different things on,” McNamara comments. “For instance, we have multiple powertrain solutions in mind but we’ll focus on discussing the powertrain configuration and subsystems we had on show at LCV. At LCV, we talked about doing hydrogen-based propulsion systems, among other things, and the skateboard works as an r&d platform for developing and maturing a wide range of power technologies we will offer in the future.” By using this approach, WAE hopes to offer its customers not a blank sheet in its EVR but rather a ‘menu’ of options across energy, power and control technologies it has validated first-hand. Development background The EVR project was given the go- ahead in January 2021. McNamara says however that WAE had been looking at the general concept of a modular skateboard for limited-edition electric sportscars for a few years beforehand. Over the 5-6 months prior to January 2021 it was agreed that the concept was worth pursuing, the decision coming in time for the company’s annual budgeting plans in December 2020 to include funding for the project’s r&d. “By that point, we had produced five or six clear and measurable car concepts, some digitally, some in physical form. One of themmade it to the market as the EVX, and we learned a lot of useful learnings along the way from contributing to projects such as the Lotus Evija,” McNamara explains. “Even though WAE is perhaps best known for its battery and powertrain technologies, we also have a vehicle design and production capability. We have a chassis teamwith skills in brakes, suspension and so on, and an aero team for active aerodynamics research, so we’ve always got some kind of vehicle activity on the go. So taking on the EVR as a project didn’t pose any particular change of direction for us.” Naturally, developing the EVX (and its updated version, the EVX-2, produced in partnership with Italdesign) also yielded important lessons in the engineering of skateboard platforms. It showed WAE’s engineers that tuning a pre-existing skateboard platform to suit end-users’ high-level requirements, rather than designing a conventional chassis from a blank sheet to fit a list of lower-level specs, gave them far more freedom to innovate and experiment with battery technologies, materials, aerodynamics and other in- house specialisms in order to reduce weight and enhance efficiency. Chris McCaw, technical lead for the EVR, recounts, “Development was very much an iterative process. We started with some initial targets for the platform, for instance the energy and capabilities of the battery pack, but over the course of the following 18 months we found that many customers wanted to build EVs on top of or around the EVR that they could then sell as products.” McCaw cites the Deus Vayanne as the prime example of what those customers hope to achieve. It is a new EV hypercar that is due to be built using the EVR platform, with Italdesign also announced as a key partner in this project. “Those discussions informed us more closely on some key ways to alter the base capabilities of the skateboard, particularly with regard to some slight boosts to the powertrain,” McCaw says. “And even though we didn’t start implementing those changes until maybe 6-12 months into development, the flexibility inherent in skateboards enabled us to mix in those changes without any setbacks. “New electric motors, battery cells and other technologies are being launched almost every 6 months, so being able to adopt new solutions during the development process was something we’d anticipated Dossier | WAE EVR The EVR is typically composed of 12 pre- formed carbon fibre modules, as well as several additively printed metal parts, enabling different sections to be redesigned without needing overarching structural changes