A REINVENTED INDUSTRY

The Skateboard Platform Impact – A 20 Year Journey

 

Disruption

The impact of the Reinvention of the Automobile with the creation of the first Electric Skateboard Platform at General Motors has had a profound and rippling effect on the entire automotive industry. When the General Motors AUTOnomy was revealed to the world in 2001 it was called “the car of the future” by the New York Times and Economist. Elizabeth Kohlbert from the New Yorker said, “Outside of science fiction” … The AUTOnomy is “the most radical reinvention of the automobile that has ever been imagined … it can even serve as a source of electricity … it does not merely improve on something that exists but vaults over all possible improvement to achieve something totally new.” Adrian Chernoff, the Chief Creative Engineer and inventor of the skateboard platform said in the New York Times, “‘This is like a blank canvas, and you can paint whatever you want on top.’’ And David Cole from the Center of Automotive Research called it “the biggest thing to happen in the last 50 years in transportation.”

Industry Adoption of the Electric Skateboard Platform

Almost every automotive manufacturer beginning with Tesla, aspiring vehicle start-ups like Rivian and Nueron, and VW who is investing $30B in the similar MEB platform are utilizing the creations, inventions and forward-thinking innovations of the Reinvention of the Automobile Program that enables the future of self-driving, autonomous assisted and autonomous vehicles. Building on this legacy of automotive transformation, accelerating vehicle electrification and digitization, many automotive companies have copied, built-upon and leveraged the modular car concepts and skateboard electric vehicle platform with batteries, hydrogen fuel cells, internal combustion’s engines are any combination thereof with its flexible, adaptable and customizable architecture. Here is a chronological history of what’s been happening starting with the most recent developments and vehicle deliveries.

2020

General Motors

Ultium Platform and EV batteries
GM announced a new EV architecture and battery solution called Ultium. As GM works to reinvent the company for an EV future, the Ultium platform will enable a flexible global platform and an all-electric future powered by the batteries. With Ultium energy, and tagged under “Our Electric Future is Now”, the battery technology has a range up to 400 miles and allows for zero to 60 mph acceleration in as low as 60 seconds. Ultium supports front, rear, and all-wheel drive applications.

Ford Motor Company

Lincoln Electric SUV on Rivian Skateboard
After an investment by Ford Motor Company into Rivian of $500M in April of 2019, the investments first payoff will come with in the form of the Lincoln Electric SUV. Rivian’s flexible skateboard platform and architecture is a key part of Ford’s all-new vehicle line-up and investment of $11.5 billion into electrification. Future electrified vehicles include the F-150 pickup and the Mustang Mach-E.

2019

Neuron-EV

Nueron T.ONE Concept and MAP Skateboard
Shown at the China International Import Expo (CIIE) in Shanghai, Neuron-EV is an electric utility vehicle company where the T/ONE can be utilized for either personal or commercial use. The T.ONE sit above and mounts to the self-mortorized MAP (Multipurpose Autonomous Platform) and can fit multiple size vehicle bodies.

Canoo

Canoo EV platform and Electric Van
Canoo EV platform with an adaptable skateboard platform revealed an Electric Van module with a mobile living room. Vehicles will be offered with an Electric Car Membership. Future capabilities may include autonomous features and other type of vehicle pods including delivery. In February 2020, Hyundai announced it will build electric vehicles with Canoo. Led by Ulrich Kranz, CEO and Richard Kim, Head of Design, the company began under the name Evelozcity under former CEO Stefan Krause.

Hino

Hino FlatFormer Electric Truck Skateboard Concept
Shown at the 2019 Tokyo Motor Show in June, the Hino FlatFomer is a pure-electric truck skateboard chassis platform utilizing REE’s corner Modules (electric E-corners based on a GM AUTOnomy patent). The FlatFormer will be cost-effective and modular like the AUTOnomy platform and will be designed to support EV trucks. The FlatFormer is going after the medium-duty truck category and designed to be all-electric. Hino is owned by Toyota.

REE

REE Platform and Corner Module
In a July 2019 press release, REE is claiming to be the first truly flat and modular skateboard chassis which is similar in messaging and visually imagery as the GM AUTOnomy. REE has also engineered corner modules where electric motors and their systems can be bolted on and plugged in. The corner module technologies, as they call it wheel ree-invented or wheel reinvented, is based on the e-corner electric motor module patents of the GM AUTOnomy.

Automobili Pininfarina

Pininfarina EV Skateboard Platform
Revealed at the 2019 Frankfurt Motor Show, a new high performance electric vehicle platform made in partnership with Bosch Engineering and Benteler will be marketed and be a tailor-made electromobility solution reducing development time to other automakers like Bently and Rolls-Royce and will underpin future Mahindra-owned Pininfarina vehicles. This modular concept will be commercialized over the next year and is similar to the Volkswagen Group Meb Chassis which enables the electrification of the future of the automobile with batteries, motors and a skateboard platform chassis.

Byton

Byton M-Byte Concept and Smart EV Platform
Shown at CES in 2019 and planned for introduction in 20202, the M-Byte electric crossover SUV is built on a flexible skateboard platform. The Byton EV Platform, called “the world’s first smart device on wheels” is fully electric and will initially support three new models and an intelligent in-car user experience. Dr. Carsten Breitfeld is the CEO and Co-founder of Byton.

Atlis Motor Vehicles

Atlis XP Skateboard Platform and Electric Truck
The Atlis XP Platform is a skateboard chassis like that supports medium to heavy-duty trucks. With a modular design, electric drivetrain and by-wire capabilities the platform showcases an electric truck prototype and is a test bed for future development, partnership and exploration. Mark Hanchett is the founder and CEO.

AEV Robotics

AEV Robotics MVS Skateboard
After three years development and shown at CES 2019, AEV Robotics revealed their MVS (Mobile Vehicle System) incorporating a skateboard platform robotic base with interchangeable vehicle pods. The base skateboard comes with 4 wheel drive, 4 wheel steering and bidirectional just like the GM AUTOnomy. The AEV skateboard is programmable, intelligent and connected. Pods come in standardized designs or be customized, examples include Taxi Service, On Demand Ride Sharing, Same day Delivery, Fresh Food Retail, Waste Management and Medical Services. Julian Broadbent, CEO, and Luciano Nakamura, Chief Design Officer, previously worked at General Motors.

2018

Volvo Group

Volvo Vera Platform and Autonomous Trucks
Volvo Trucks has rolled at a self-driving electric truck skateboard for short-haul trucking. The Vera skateboard with electric motors, batteries and an intelligent connected network will act as an autonomous transport as a logistics solution without need of a driver and having zero emissions that can move products from ships (drayage) to a rail hub or truck dispatch or between warehouses in last-mile delivery applications. Leading the initiative is Mikael Karlsson is Vice President of autonomous solutions at Volvo Trucks.

RIVIAN

Rivian Skateboard
Founded in 2009 and operating under stealth mode, Rivian revealed for the first time at the Designing the Future Summit in Michigan in June 2018 their skateboard platform chassis that allows Rivian to customize various body types above similar to the GM AUTOnomy. The underpinning base or skateboard houses the braking, suspension, batteries and cooling systems. The first two vehicles to market on the skateboard will be the R1T pick-up truck (in 2020), and 3-row SUV, the R1S (in 2021). R.J. Scaringe is the founder and CEO of Rivian.

Mercedes-Benz

Mercedes-Benz Vision URBANETIC Concept and Skateboard
The Vision URBANETIC has an autonomous driving platform or electric skateboard chassis which they call Fiebertraum, with switchable bodies like the GM AUTOnomy first shown at the ITS 2018 World Congress in Copenhagen. All the mobility functions are in the battery-electric drive skateboard chassis with zero emissions and can be driven independently or with cargo bodies, passenger bodies, or other people-mover, packaging-moving or autonomous moving capabilities.

Volkswagen

Volkswagen MEB Platform
VW is investing over 30 billion to engineer and produce vehicles on a skateboard platform they call MEB (modular electric drive) matrix platform. The VW MEB electric skateboard toolkit is a flexible architecture and can be customized across segments and vehicles and for VW, Audi and Porsche brands. MEB supports compact to SUV sized cars with AWD and RWD. The Volkswagen I.D. will be the first MEB model.  There are 4 EV platforms: MLB (Modular Longitudinal Matrix), MEB (Modularer E-Antriebs-Baukasten), J1, and PPE (Premium Platform Electric).

Volkswagen

EV Platform Investment

€ Billions Invested

Vehicles Offered

MEB Platforms

Rinspeed

Rinspeed Snap and IDDC Platform
The Rinspeed has a skateboard electric platform they call IDDC (Intelligent Dynamic Driving Chassis) allowing vehicle bodies or pods to snap onto the base like the GM AUTOnomy. At CES 2018, the Rinspeed IDDC was shown with a mobile living room like the Suzuki Mobile Terrace Concept shown in 2003. Over the years Rinspeed has shown iterative visions of the Snap. In 2018 the Rinspeed Snap, in 2019  the Rinspeed Microsnap and in 2020 the Rinspeed Metrosnap

General Motors

GM SURUS Platform Skateboard
The GM SURUS (Silent Utility Rover Universal Structure) Platform is a truck chassis skateboard with self-driving autonomous abilities and can be a utility truck, light and medium-duty trucks, cargo delivery, commercial freight or made for military-specific configurations. It may utilize the GM  Hydrotec Fuel Cell system and has exportable power generation for mobile and emergency backup power generation, has water generation capabilities and is fleet and field configurable.

2017

Bollinger Motors

Bollinger E-Chassis Skateboard and B1 SUV
In 2017 the B1 SUV was announced alongside an electric skateboard truck chassis. In March 2020, the engineered skateboard chassis for heavy-duty vans and trucks was revealed as the E-Chassis battery-powered platform and will be used with the B1 Sport Utility Truck, B2 Pickup and future model lineups. Robert Bollinger is CEO.

Williams Advanced Engineering

WAE FW-EVX Concept and Skateboard
Williams Advanced Engineering (WAE) engineered a light-weight aluminum and carbon composite skateboard, the FW-EVX electric vehicle platform for many vehicle segments. The FW-EVX is a self-supporting scalable platform with chassis, drivetrain, electric motors, battery power modules, impact protection zones and side cooling panels with configurability and design similar to the GM AUTOnomy.

Tesla

Tesla Semi and Freight Truck Skateboard
The Tesla Semis is revealed with either a 300-mile or 500-mile range and utilizes a freight truck electric skateboard, an all-electric architecture. The driver sits in the center with full road visibility and the Semi will have features including Autopilot, Lane Departure Warning, Automatic Lane Keeping, Automatic Emergency Braking and event recording.

2016

Nikola Motor Company

Nikola Skateboard and Hydrogen-Electric Semi Truck
Nikola hydrogen-electric semi truck is built off the Nikola skateboard with motors mounted on each drive axle. Nikola Semi’s, like the Nikola One, Nikola Two or Nikola Tre may be fuel-cell hydrogen-powered trucks or battery-electric variants. CEO and founder Trevor Milton only hired engineers without trucking experience when he started the company as he didn’t want to develop a truck or semi like others had done. As of 2019, Nikola has $14 billion in orders for fuel-cell electric trucks.

PIX Moving

PIX Skateboard Autonomous Chassis and Modular Concept
PIX Modular is a mobility solution with a future vision of PIX City enabled by the PIX skateboard, the modular autonomous driving chassis, with quick-change swapping vehicle bodies for the self-driving delivery of people or goods or for the placement of portable experiences.

Faraday Future

Faraday Future EV and VPA Skateboard
Shown at CES in 2016, the Variable Platform Architecture (VPA skateboard) is a modular platform design that underpins the high performance FF Electric Vehicle FFZERO 1. Three years later in 2019, the ultra-luxury vehicle FF 91was shown utilizing VPA modular engineering system. Carsten Breitfeld is CEO of Faraday Future.

2009

Tesla Motors

Tesla Model S and Mass-Produced Skateboard
The Model S is the first commercial vehicle with the electric skateboard chassis with powertrain based on the GM AUTOnomy skateboard platform. The Tesla Model S concept, a premium sedan, was announced on June 2008 followed by a prototype reveal in March 2009. Customer deliveries of the all-electric five-door liftback sedan Model S sedan will be made available in either the 60kWh or the 85kWh battery options beginning June 2012 with showrooms across the country featuring the AUTOnomy like skateboard platform as a key selling point with its chassis and powertrain system architectures. Autopilot was offered after October 2016.

2007

General Motors

Chevrolet Volt and Skateboard Architecture
At the 2007 Detroit International Auto Show, GM unveiled its near-term skateboard architecture called E-Flex architecture as a nearer term evolution of Reinvention of the Automobile and an integral part of the Chevrolet Volt concept vehicle. The Chevy Volt, a plug-in hybrid, showcases technologies featured in the GM Hy-Wire and the GM Sequel skateboard technology platforms. These overlapping technologies include a fuel cell propulsion system, hydrogen storage tanks, batteries, one electric motor for the front wheels, and electric motors mounted within each rear wheel. The only difference between the Hy-Wire /Sequel and the concept Volt is the elimination of the skateboard to utilize existing production facilities and a mechanical steering column. The ability to have different propulsion systems (traditional gas or diesel, E-85 bio-fuel, batteries, or other electric powertrains) was covered in the GM AUTOnomy program. The Chevrolet Volt deliveries began in 2010 for the Gas-Electric Hybrid and was discontinued in 2019 with 177,000 units.

2006

Tesla Motors

Tesla Roadster and Hybrid-Skateboard
Revealed at a private event on July 19, 2006 at the Santa Monica Airport, the Tesla Roadster is first electricity powered sports car based on the General Motors AUTOnomy skateboard platform, but adapted from a near-term Lotus Elise Chassis and drivetrain architecture. The Roadster reveal took place at the same place as the General Motors Hy-Wire ride & drive event in 2003. The Roadster concept was later shown at the San Francisco International Auto show in November 2006. Three years after there private reveal, the Roadster began deliveries in June 2009 and ended in December 2012 with a total production of 2,450 vehicles. To note, Tesla Motors Incorporated in July 2003 following the GM AUTOnomy (January 2002) and GM Hy-Wire (September 2002).  By 2004 they recieved Series A funding with the leadership team with Martin Eberhard the CEO, JB Straubel the CTO, Marc Tarpenning the CFO and Elon Musk the Chairman and Head of Product Design.

2005

General Motors

GM Sequel and Hydrogen Skateboard
Shown at the 2005 Detroit International Auto Show, and followed by ride and drive events, the forth installment of the Reinvention of the Automobile Program demonstrates a fully operational SUV and electric skateboard platform housing a hydrogen fuel cell that provides a 300 mile range on three electric motors. The vehicle has full by-wire functionality and the motors are configured with one front traction motor and two rear wheel motors. The Sequel was engineered as a pre-production showcase.

2004

MIT, Art Center, CCS, Strate Collège, GM

Skateboard-Based Design Competitions
Many design competitions have used the AUTOnomy skateboard as an enabler for design. One competition was promoted by (1) Car Styling Magazine; others held at design schools including (2) Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California, (3) the College for Creative Studies in Detroit, Michigan, and (4) Strate Collège in Paris, France. (5) General Motors hosted many competitions for its summer interns to create innovative future GM vehicles by brand on the skateboard chassis. (6) Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) researched and considered hydrogen-distribution technologies stemming from the AUTOnomy (with a $5,000-prize) and in conjunction with the Smart Cities Group and (7) MIT Media Lab leveraged the GM AUTOnomy and its drive-by-wire functionality to create CityCar concept vehicles with world-renown architect Frank O. Gehry.

2003

General Motors

GM CARousel on Modular Skateboard
Showcased first by GM as the GM CARousel at the TED conference in Monterey in 2003 and subsequently at the 2004 Geneva Motor Show by Bertone as the Bertone CARousel, the GM CARousel is an exploration in Reinventing Driving and is based on the Hy-Wire skateboard chassis demonstrating two novel ways to drive a vehicle with advanced drivers controls that take advantage of the full-by-wire system and also demonstrate the ability to configure where to drive from by changing drivers seat location from right hand, center, or left hand driving positions. CARousel has two driving solutions, one are single or syncrhonized rotary hand controllers and the other is an all-in-one by-wire steering. The Carousel is currently on display in Italy in an Italian Museum.

2002

General Motors

Hy-Wire Drive-able Proof of Concept and working Skateboard Platform
Revealed at the 2002 Paris International Auto Show in September and subsequently shown at the 2003 Detroit International Auto Show in January and presented at the TED Conference in Monterrey, CA this is the second vehicle in the Reinvention of the Automobile Program that demonstrates the viability of the concept through a fully operational skateboard platform in a Luxury Sedan. Validating both a fully electronic vehicle skateboard platform, a fuel-cell electric vehicle skateboard platform and the viability of interchanging vehicle bodies and full-by-wire controls. Ride and Drives of the Hy-WIre vehicle were facilitated starting in Europe in Geneva and the Santa Monica Airport in the US. President George Bush also visited with the vehicle and then spoke about the future of transportation in his State of the Union Address.

General Motors

GM AUTOnomy Concept Vehicle and Skateboard Platform
Invented, designed, developed and built in 2001 and revealed at the January 2002 Detroit International Auto Show in, this is the first embodiment of the Reinvention of the Automobile demonstrated in the ultimate future vision in the sleek sports coupe GM AUTOnomy was the first the electric skateboard platform followed by the vehicle, both driven out-on stage via remote control. Featuring an advanced fuel cell hydrogen powered propulsion system (also supporting electric, plug-in or hybrid), electric drive, brake and steering system and electric motors (in any configuration). Forty (40) patents pending applications cover the vehicle, vehicle systems, smart wheel motors (e-corners), the Skateboard Platform, and more.

The Electric Skateboard Platform Diagram