REE Automotive’s UK electric vehicle factory offers glimpse of what it’ll do in Pflugerville

An Israeli electric vehicle company that manufacturers chassis for varying sizes of vehicles has offered new details of what is planned at its first U.S. facility in Pflugerville, once it’s operational in 2023.

REE Automotive Ltd. (Nasdaq: REE) announced May 16 that this year it will open its first integration center in Coventry in the United Kingdom, where the company will use a robotic assembly and a cloud-based manufacturing approach to initially produce up to 10,000 vehicle chassis a year.

The company also said it plans to duplicate the U.K. operations at its Pflugerville facility, increasing capacity to 20,000 vehicles by next year. The company previously disclosed plans to handle operations, research and design and light manufacturing in a nearly 120,000-square-foot facility in Pecan 130 Business Park near East Pecan Street and the State Highway 130 toll road. At least 125 people are expected to work at the plant.

“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,” REE Chief Operations Officer Josh Tech said in a statement. “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.”

REE manufacturers completely flat and modular chassis for electric vehicles including passenger shuttles, delivery vehicles and buses, with an eye toward the future autonomous vehicle market. Its technology, dubbed REEcorner, packs vehicle components such as steering, braking, suspension, powertrain and control into a single compact module between the chassis and the wheel. The company’s partners include Hino Motors Ltd., the commercial vehicle arm of Toyota Motor Corp.; Magna International Inc.; J.B. Poindexter and Co.; Navya and American Axle & Manufacturing Inc.

REE is partnering with Rockwell Automation and Expert Technologies for robotics and automated assembly, with the first assembly line expected to become operational in the 130,000-square-foot U.K. facility later this year. The company said it will initially start with production of its P7 electric platform for commercial vehicles such as walk-in delivery vans, buses and recreational vehicles.

“We have a world-class team of highly skilled designers and engineers who are leading the design, development and production of our innovative current and future technologies,” REE Vice President of Engineering Peter Dow said in a statement. “Our team is doing tremendous work toward commercialization of our REEcorner technology with P7 corner and platform builds. This establishment of the Coventry Integration Center marks a pivotal moment in the commercialization of REE’s innovative REEcorner technology and EV platforms, with prototype on-track testing of its P7 platform having commenced this year.

REE on March 22 received approval from Pflugerville City Council for an eight-year economic development performance agreement with the Pflugerville Community Development Corp. that provides up to $1 million in grants. It had been approved by the PCDC on March 16.

The incentives agreement — codenamed Project New Future in city documents — is contingent on REE investing $24.75 million in personal property and capital improvements and presenting a certificate of occupancy while maintaining a lease agreement. It’s also contingent on the creation of 125 jobs throughout the eight-year term. The company will also seek skill development funds and other grants to provide the community with training opportunities in electric vehicle components.

It marks another high-tech company moving to Pflugerville, the Austin-adjacent suburb that saw its population grow from 46,936 in 2010 to 65,191 in 2020, according to U.S. Census Bureau figures. It is located 18 miles north of downtown Austin.

Last month, Iowa-based MoboTrex Inc. was approved for incentives to help relocate or employ at least 110 full-time jobs at a 130,000-square-foot facility in the One Thirty Business Park. Dallas-based Skybox Datacenters LLC was approved for incentives that will help the company open a 141,000-square-foot, 30-megawatt data center with up to 10 full-time primary jobs. Elon Musk’s tunneling startup, The Boring Company, also quietly moved its headquarters to Pflugerville, as it ramps up work throughout Central Texas.

It also marks another company involved in the growing electric vehicle sector in the Austin area, headlined by Tesla Inc.’s $1.1 billion vehicle factory in eastern Travis County. EV companies operating in the northern suburbs include Hyliion Holdings Corp., an electric trucking technology company in Cedar Park; electric vehicle producer Ayro in Round Rock; and CelLink Corp., an electric vehicle supplier setting up shop in Georgetown. Another unknown electric vehicle manufacturer is said to be eyeing space in Hutto.

Courtesy of Austin Business Journal. See the full article here.