Re-inventing carmaking with truly electric cars: Using a modular car architecture to build new cars and a new carmaking industry

Abstract

If we replace our gasoline-engine cars with truly electric cars, we can build a new carmaking industry. A few huge, often financially troubled companies with slow-changing technology dominate today's industry. But we can build a new carmaking industry as big, bold, vibrant and fast-moving as the computer industry. A modular car architecture that builds on the advantages of an electric - not mechanical - power train is the key. Our “proof of concept” truly electric car has seven modules, each a “black box” with well-defined and simple mechanical, data and power interfaces to other modules. Making cars truly electric can give us dramatically new cars and a dramatically new carmaking industry.