Two of the auto industry’s well known specialists are partnering on modular EV development. Italdesign and Williams Advanced Engineering are working together on a platform called the EVX, which could be overlaid with a number of body styles.
The most stylish bodies of all, really, courtesy of the studio that brought us the DMC DeLorean and the Fiat Panda. These new designs be will undergirded by the electrification expertise of WAE, the technology and engineering firm that grew out of Williams F1 in 2010.
The EVX platform is aiming for something a little more premium than the Panda and more modern than the DeLorean. The promise of the EVX is that its rolling chassis is the ideal base for the wizards at Italdesign to build on.
The companies plan to use the EVX to provide carmakers with high-performance fully electrified cars, not too far removed from the BEVs Porsche and Audi currently produce.
This platform, however, can underpin a broader range of cars, from sedans to crossovers and cabrios, because modularity was baked into its development. I hope it produces a broad range of price points, too.
The EVX takes an interesting approach by incorporating the battery pack into the chassis itself, meaning the battery is a structural member of the car; it’s not just dropped in. Williams and Italdesign go on to elaborate what that entails:
Differentiating itself from other EV platforms currently in the market, EVX integrates the battery casing with elements more commonly perceived as part 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. These two design philosophies reduce reliance on the upper structure, which then gives greater design freedom for a variety of “top hats.”
Also, the EVX isn’t kidding about high-performance. It can provide up to 1000 kW of power, and the battery pack can have up to a 160 kWh capacity, good for 621 miles of range, according to WAE. Now, those are the platform’s upper limits, but they are nonetheless impressive.
Carmakers can also go with either rear- or front-wheel drive on the platform. Its wheelbase can range from about 114 to 122 inches, and just to give you some context, both the Porsche Taycan and Audio E-Tron GT have a wheelbase that’s around 114 inches. Other than this, it seems like the sky is the limit here.
Overall, the EVX platform sounds very versatile. Let’s just hope whatever carmaker commissions Williams and Italdesign to build electric cars on the EVX platform has the moxie to go wide with it.
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