Ree Automotive looks to change EV truck architecture with 4-corner technology

Ree’s first product will be the P7-B box truck, which targets the core of the medium-duty electric market.

The selling point is the novel wheel-based drive system called Reecorner, said KC Heidler, CEO of Tom’s Truck Center, a two-store chain based in Santa Ana, Calif.

Each corner has an electric motor as well as steering, braking and suspension components packaged into a module positioned between the chassis and the wheel. The system is controlled by wire, similar to how commercial aircraft operate, but is scaled and modified for the everyday driver rather than a skilled pilot, said Daniel Barel, Ree’s co-founder and CEO.

The modules allow for a flat skateboard platform, creating a low step-in height with more room for cargo or passengers if used as a shuttle. The vehicle has significantly more agility — especially useful for dense urban environments — than other commercial vehicles. It has a 39-foot turning circle.

The truck offers a 150-mile range with up to a 7,000-pound payload, consistent with the drive cycles of box trucks. The vehicle architecture would allow for a bigger battery pack and longer range, but customers neither need nor want to pay for that extra capability, Barel said.

The system also makes for easy service. Technicians can swap a module out in about an hour, limiting the time the truck would be out of service, a key metric for commercial vehicle users, he said.

Ree demonstrated the technology for guests at its headquarters Monday during EcoMotion, a conference and weeklong series of events focusing on Israeli automotive technology.

Ree has a plant in Coventry, England, where it will launch production this year. Barel said Ree could assemble up to 20,000 vehicles annually, working two shifts at the factory.

When it reported its first-quarter financial results Tuesday, Ree said it had 100 truck orders. It set a production target in the low hundreds of vehicles for 2024 and into the low to mid-thousands by the end of 2025.

Ree is recruiting independent truck dealers to build its distribution network. Tom’s Truck Center, with stores in Santa Ana and Santa Fe Springs, Calif., is among the first eight.

Heidler said he sees a market opportunity to help businesses tap federal and state incentives to transition their fleets to ZEVs. He’s working with Nikola Corp. and GreenPower Motor Co., among others, and gets pitched constantly by green vehicle startups.

“Most will be out of business or merged into something else in two or three years. But we have vetted many of these startups and think we are picking the ones that will survive,” Heidler told Automotive News.

One problem is that few offer innovative technology that would provide an advantage to businesses, Heidler said. They typically have similar, conventional designs, he said.

But the Ree technology offers advantages that could make it a survivor.

“In the commercial space, weight and space is everything,” Heidler said. “The corner technology opens up everything else on the truck for us to design for the customer.”

Ree is the only company Tom’s is working with that doesn’t have a product already on the road, he said.