Milestones for REECorner
11 July 2024
REE Automotive gets FMVSS, EPA certification

REE Automotive Ltd. said its P7-C medium-duty commercial electric truck chassis cab is the first steer-, brake- and drive-by-wire vehicle to achieve Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS) and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) certification. That’s in additional to the certifications it received early last year from California Air Resources Board (CARB).
The company’s REECorner uses electronic control to replace mechanical and hydraulic systems for braking, driving and steering. The company said the absence of mechanical components increased cabin space and cargo volume, allowing for a low floor ready for a wide range of upfit possibilities.
“I believe our REEcorner is a true gamechanger, allowing us to build electric trucks that fleets will want to buy, and drivers will love to drive as we continue to see a strong demand for our work trucks,” said Daniel Barel, CEO and co-founder of REE Automotive, Tel Aviv, Israel. “I am incredibly proud of the team at REE for completing certification of the automotive industry’s first ever fully x-by-wire vehicle.”
The company said the benefits of its REEcorner include:

■ Maneuverability and volumetric efficiency
■ Enhanced safety with redundancies in hardware and software
■ Improved ergonomics with low step-in height and driver-centric cabin
■ Improved serviceability
■ Efficient maintenance and lower spare part inventory management
■ Future-proofed, autonomous-ready and OTA upgrade capable
■ Modular design, quick time to market
■ Optimal energy efficiency
“We’re able to build the truck around each REEcorner, so we are very modular, in wheelbase, width or any other configuration,” said Barel. “We build our batteries as modules directly into the chassis, as well, which gives our customers the ability to have modular battery sizes according to their needs. So, with this truck you have a modular wheelbase and battery design and having it x-by-wire provides customers with a truck that is better operationally.”
The company said safe operation was ensured in part due redundancies designed into the REEcorner. “This is an operational safety vehicle, meaning there is no single point of failure that can prevent the vehicle from failing in its operational work,” said Barel. “Even if a steering actuator fails, we have two different motors for every steering actuator and so on. Or if one corner fails complelty the other three can take care of the whole vehicle and continue the operation. If there is a significant fault, the operator will get an error on the dash and the vehicle will continue to operate.”
REE – the drive system and the company itself — was started with a clean sheet of paper a decade ago, and Barel said it’s when the team sought out the voice of the customer that the company began to grow. “Our customers are our partners, and the voice of those customers is key in the way we see the development of those vehicles and the deployment of those vehicles into the market,” he said. “It is extremely important for us to be linked to customers to understand not only what it means for the fleet, but also for our dealers and our affiliate partners.”
For 2023, the company reported a 900% growth in year-over-year order book value and an expanding dealer network that includes 66 points of sales and service in the U.S. and Canada.
The company said the CARB certifications include Phase 2 Greenhouse Gas (GHG) for the vehicle and new Zero Emission Powertrain (“ZEP”) certification. CARB certification is a requirement for eligibility for several state incentives, which combined with federal can total over $100,000 per vehicle, depending on customer location.
The company has worked with several body builders to showcase the chassis in its work clothes, including Knapheide, which placed a KUV steel utility body onto a P7-C chassis cab for the 2024 Work Truck Week trade show in Indianapolis.
“It was a great process working together to develop our body around their chassis,” said Chris Weiss, vice president of engineering, Knapheide. “It’s one thing for a company to give us a cab chassis and ask us to upfit it, it’s another to actually partner with the manufacturer to come up with a solution ahead of time. The REE P7-C comes to us ready to go – for example, there is a series of threaded inserts so that our body is mounted directly to the frame rails. By working together for every step of the process, we’re able to create a really custom and seamless process for the REE P7-C and any future fleet customers.

REE said some of the benefits to fleets and end-users include:
■ Ergonomics: Driver-centric, cab-forward cabin design for good visibility. Enables ease of entry and exit due to the low platform and full-height cab.
■ Serviceability: Swappable REEcorners can be replaced in less than an hour for low fleet TCO and minimal downtime – using a single common corner for all four spots.
■ Maneuverability: Tight turning radius, all-wheel drive, all-wheel steer.
REE said it has initiated customer deliveries of the first batch of trucks for fleet evaluation via its dealer network. Pritchard EV, in Clear Lake, Iowa, was the first to receive the P7-C demonstration truck for a roadshow with its large fleet customers.
The company’s assembly line at its integration center in Coventry, England, is expected to act as a blueprint for future locations, including North America.
This article originally appeared in the May 2024 issue fo
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