A joint venture intended to provide the upper premium automotive sector with a complete high-performance electric vehicle (EV) production solution will combine a state-of-the-art composite EV rolling chassis from U.K.-based Williams Advanced Engineering (WAE) with turn-key vehicle development services from Italy’s Italdesign.

The EVX rolling chassis platform from WAE integrates the battery casing with elements of the body structure. Front and rear chassis structures mount to the carbon composite case and crash loads can be transferred via internal reinforcements to the integral side sills. The resulting higher profiled cross section achieves much of the torsional stiffness needed to deliver the full potential of the platform.

Italdesign will complete the vehicle architecture by adding safety systems, structures and user experience Source: WAEdevices to constitute the modular platform that will be the base to build-up several different high performances vehicles.

Performance figures revealed include the ability of the WAE battery system to deliver 1000 kW of power with 104 kWh to 120 kWh of energy, with potential expansion to up to 160 kWh for a potential 1000 km vehicle range between charges.

The lightweight EVX structure will allow customers to choose rear-wheel and four-wheel drive layouts. Combining recycled composite materials with aluminum, the EVX can be broken down and recycled at end of life, with ease of disassembly a key design focus. Reduced time to market and affordability at low-to-medium volumes are also engineering design targets. The new platform is capable of supporting production runs up to 10,000 units, up to 500 of which could be manufactured by Italdesign at its facilities in Turin.