Electric truck production accelerates in Detroit

Marking a significant milestone on its path to electrifying fleet vehicles across North America, REE Automotive Ltd., an automotive technology company and provider of full by-wire electric trucks and platforms, announced that it has selected Roush Industries, a vehicle contract manufacturer, to assemble REE’s P7 vehicles at Roush’s Detroit-area factory. REE will continue to manufacture its proprietary REEcorner technology in its UK Coventry Integration Center. Roush will be supported onsite by a joint REE and Motherson team, who will be responsible for overall quality assurance, logistics, and testing.

Roush, as U.S. contract manufacturer for the P7 lineup, will be responsible for the assembly of full vehicles according to REE’s requirements. REE’s software-defined electric trucks will be assembled at Roush’s Detroit-based site, specifically chosen for REE’s requirements and designed to have a yearly capacity of up to 5,000 trucks. Motherson, a global automotive part supplier with whom REE signed a strategic agreement, will manage global supply chain and logistics targeting cost reduction, improved unit economics, and higher margines.

REE’s P7 electric commercial trucks line-up is built on top of four REEcorners featuring REE’s x-by-wire technology. REEcorners pack critical vehicle components into the area between the chassis and the wheel, enabling a fully flat electric chassis end-to-end with up to 35% more interior volume for passengers, cargo, and batteries. Electric vehicles built on the P7 chassis have the industry’s lowest step-in height, are autonomous ready, and can be powered by either batteries or fuel cells. The P7 is well established with a network of 78 service and sales locations through 24 authorized dealers across North America with potential access to over 200 fleets in the U.S. and Canada.

“We chose to work with Roush because of their proven capabilities and expertise in the commercial EV market, their capacity to scale production, and their understanding of our unique business model, which is to build our vehicles to order, not for inventory,” says Josh Tech, chief operating officer of REE. “We want to get our trucks in the hands of our customers as soon as possible, while not sacrificing on quality, making sure our customers can count on us as they build their electric commercial fleets. By partnering with Roush, we can concentrate on our core technology and production of the REEcorners while optimizing production costs and reducing go to market times benefiting from their nearly 40-year track record of engineering and manufacturing spans from NASCAR, to lunar terrain vehicles, to the most innovative EVs.”