REE Claims 10,000 EV Vehicle Sets Ready this Year
BEV platform maker, REE Automotive, claims it will have created 10,000 new vehicle sets by the end of the year as it swings into commercial production.
It has announced it has proven its robotic assembly capabilities, the core of its CapEx-light and highly-automated integration center manufacturing approach. REE’s plans to implement the cloud-based robotic assembly lines at its network of digitalized global manufacturing plants with first in its European Integration Center in Coventry, UK.
The Coventry center will serve customer demand in Europe with an initial focus on the P7 electric platform for commercial vehicles such as walk-in delivery vans, buses and recreational vehicles. This site will also operate as the blueprint for all future REE centers, with expected capacity of 40,000 REEcorners, integrating powertrain, suspension and steering function, this year.
The center is approximately 130,000 square feet, includes industry 4.0 technologies and will be partially powered by solar energy. The North American Integration Center in Austin, Texas, is expected to double global capacity to 20,000 vehicle sets in 2023 by replicating the highly automated cloud-based architecture of its European sibling.
The company is partnering with industry leaders including Rockwell Automation and Expert Technologies for robotics and automated assembly, with the first assembly line expected to become operational in the second half of 2022. The company expects to host customer and media visits later this year.
REE is implementing line-side controls from Rockwell Automation and is creating further efficiencies and savings through the adoption of the Plex Manufacturing Execution System. The Plex cloud-based solution’s ability to deliver full visibility into production operations enables scalable manufacturing locally and across global Integration Centers.
Josh Tech, REE’s chief operating officer, said: “This is an important milestone on our path to commercial production next year. The automated and connected capabilities at our Coventry site are a great foundation for our global operations, as they will enable us to continuously fine-tune our assembly procedures and rapidly deploy them to other sites. Our cloud-based robotic manufacturing system will be the digital backbone for our assembly lines and give us the local capability to manage our customer-specific manufacturing operations, while also allowing us to quickly share and scale best practices internationally across all plants.”
— Paul Myles is a seasoned automotive journalist based in Europe. Follow him on Twitter @Paulmyles_
