Williams and Italdesign launch new electric car architecture

Williams Advanced Engineering (WAE) and Italian stylist Italdesign have pulled the drapes off an all-new high-performance pure-electric vehicle architecture that's been created for battery-powered cars.

Catering for car-makers on the lookout for a platform that will underpin a production run of up to 10,000 cars a year, the British Formula 1 outfit's engineering arm says its all-new EVX architecture is both lightweight and highly flexible, capable of being used to build anything from GTs to SUVs and traditional sedans.

Created out of recycled composite material and aluminium, the WAE and Italdesign platform differs from other architectures as it uses the battery casing as an integral part of the structure, with the front and rear carbon-composites chassis structures hung off the casing.

Thanks to its lightweight and stiff construction and the capability of running sophisticated suspension systems, WAE promises "class-leading handling".

According to the company, this boosts flexibility and blesses it with class-leading torsional stiffness, plus great freedom in what 'top hat' is placed on the platform.

Helping design the SUV, sports car or sedan 'top hat', as part of purchasing the new architecture Italdesign will help the car-maker create the electric car of its dreams.

The architecture is designed to work with two, three or four electric motors. Under the most powerful set-up, WAE says the EVX-based vehicle could produce an incredible 1000kW, providing a 0-100km/h time of 2.4 seconds.

Three battery packs can also be supplied: 104kWh, 120kWh or a huge 160kWh power pack that provides for a range of more than 1000km.

WAE says the new platform benefits from its significant experience supplying battery packs for not only Formula E, but more recently Extreme E and eTCR.

Thanks to the streamlined development program, WAE and Italdesign claim they could produce a working prototype in just 12 months and have a car ready for production within three years.

Even if a car-maker client doesn't have a production facility, Italdesign is able to hire out its Turin facility that's capable of manufacturing around 500 cars per year.