Karma Automotive reveals adaptable E-Flex platform for EVs

Karma Automotive intends to offer the E-Flex platform to other EV manufacturers as a means to circumvent the high costs of developing a chassis of their own.

Southern California-based Karma Automotive has taken a slight detour. The American performance EV maker has now turned its attention to developing electric mobility solutions for fellow EV makers – first of which comes in the form of the new E-Flex EV platform. Karma claims that this 'highly versatile chassis', via open platform partnership, provides a relatively cost-effective alternative to EV startups that have limited resources for product development. The E-Flex platform can underpin various types of vehicles – from electric vans to everyday cars and performance cars.

It's worth mentioning that developing an EV from ground-up can require as much as a billion-dollar investment. Therefore, small-scale EV makers are likely to benefit significantly from such ready-to-use components that can help reduce development costs.

Sharing his thoughts on the agenda behind the development of the E-Flex platform, Kevin Pavlov (COO, Karma Automotive) said, 'We created a physical product that can be formatted into five different products, what others have called a one-dimensional skateboard but what we call our E-Flex Platform – a multi-use solution. There are up to 22 different possible configurations available, covering various battery-packaging variants and different drive motor drive systems. We can deliver a wide range of configurations, depending on the builder's priority.'

The E-Flex platform currently supports the architecture of the 2020 Karma Revero GT Extended-Range EV (EREV). In the coming weeks, Karma Automotive will present more variations/applications of the E-Flex platform for standard EVs and EREVs.

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