UK: Free electric vehicle charging network adds new location
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The huge vote in confidence for Britain comes from Israeli electric vehicle (EV) start-up REE. They plan to open a $15million (£12.1million) manufacturing hub and double its workforce from 150 to about 300. The heavily automated site will specialise in creating the bases, or platforms, for its vehicle.
Then, bespoke “corners” can be dropped in to integrate the electric motors and technology.
The company has partnered with the likes of Toyota’s truck arm Hino, Magna Steyr in Austria and JB Poindexter in the US, which will add the rest of the build.
It’s a huge win for the UK’s hopes of attracting new investments int he EV industry.
And founder Daniel Barel said those companies that rashly left the UK after the Brexit vote handed his company an open goal.
He said: “Our employees have worked for Honda, JLR, Lotus, Aston and others, which made it very easy for us with Brexit to tap into that far more.
“I am not saying we could not have done it without Brexit, but competing for resources [would have been much harder].”
It comes after Nissan, Stellantis and Ford all invested in electric models or components in the UK.
REE says it has a different approach to EVs and its model allows it to cater for various different vehicles without using expensive manufacturing equipment.
Mr Barel told the Financial Times: “We are not fabricating anything.
“The beauty is that it is built as a Lego factory, you can add more capacity as you want, instead of shipping globally from one gigaplant.”
REE received more than £41million from the Government-backed d Advanced Propulsion Centre last summer to develop its “corner” technology further.
While the technology was developed in Israel, Mr Barel said the UK was the brains behind the breakthrough.
The Coventry Integration Centre will start producing the REEcorner platforms later this year.
It will be aable to knock out 10,000 P7 versions designed for walk-in delivery vans, buses, and recreational vehicles this year.
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.”
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