Modular EV Platform Could Enable Faster Manufacturing
Illustration courtesy Donut Lab
ESPOO, Finland—Donut Lab, a subsidiary of EV start-up Verge Motorcycles, has developed a platform of components that it says can be used to build a variety of products that roll, float or fly. Components include in-wheel electric motors that the company claims “eliminate the need for a drivetrain and, thus, makes it simpler, lighter and more affordable to manufacture vehicles.”
Other components include battery modules, computer units and vehicle control software. They feature a modular architecture available in a range of sizes and performance classes.
“Verge TS is the world's most advanced electric motorcycle,” says Marko Lehtimäki, CEO of Donut Lab. “When developing it, we learned how difficult and slow it is to build electric vehicles using traditional mechanisms.
“The reason for this is that vehicles are built with components from different equipment manufacturers and are not designed to work together—integration work always takes up most of the time,” explains Lehtimäki. “We decided that if we were able to solve this, we would change the entire automotive industry.”
According to Lehtimäki, the Donut platform can “significantly speed up the development cycle of electric vehicles and can reduce the resource requirements for vehicle development by up to 95 percent compared to the current level.
“Work that used to take several years can now be completed in a matter of months,” claims Lehtimäki. “The Donut platform offers a high-quality range of inter-compatible components to make electric vehicle manufacturing quicker and more affordable.”
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