Italdesign and Williams Advanced Engineering have announced a unique new partnership that will provide a complete high-performance EV production solution.
The partnership will combine a state-of-the-art composite electric vehicle rolling chassis from WAE with turn-key vehicle development services from Italy’s world-famous coachbuilder.
The joint venture will enable both newcomers and established OEMs in the automotive sector to benefit from the expertise of two global leaders in EV engineering and vehicle design, supporting them in the creation of a range of upper premium EVs from high performance GTs to crossovers and sedans.
The core pack, designed in-house by WAE, can deliver 1,000kW of power with 104kWh-120kWh of energy. The flexibility within the module design enables expansion of the pack up to 160kWh for a potential 1,000km vehicle range.
WAE’s innovative EV architecture is differentiating itself from other EV platforms currently on the market as it 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 designers greater freedom and flexibility.
Italdesign’s Engineering Team then completes the vehicle architecture by adding safety systems, structures, UX devices to constitute the modular platform that will be the base to build-up several different high-performance vehicles.
The innovative modular platform is ready for customisation by the Italdesign styling team who will shape the final vehicle to match the brand’s requirements in terms of marketing positioning and design direction.
WAE is an expert in creating extremely powerful battery packs as it has been the original supplier of batteries to the entire grid of FIA Formula E World Championship cars in 2014, a relationship that has been revived for the 2022-23 season.
WAE also supplies battery systems to ETCR and Extreme-E and has considerable experience in high-performance electrified road car programmes stretching back more than a decade.
The partnership between these two companies could revolutionise the high-performance sector according to Paul McNamara, Technical Director at WAE.
“We are delighted to join forces with Italdesign on this exciting and timely collaboration,” he said. “Demand for high performance electric vehicles is continuing to show considerable growth but to date, there has not been a complete EV production solution. This unique relationship brings together state-of-the-art EV rolling chassis technology with one of the world’s leaders in vehicle body engineering.”