Chinese Startups’ Take on Skateboard Chassis
Skateboard chassis, a concept initiated by General Motors back in 2002, got picked up in recent years by automotive companies and startups along with electrification, automation, connectivity, and shared mobility.
Skateboard chassis: the ultimate level of synergies
The skateboard chassis is strictly speaking a platform for vehicle development that integrates batteries, electric motors, steering, braking, suspension, etc. It may or may not look like a skateboard physically. But the idea is to mount different cabin styles on a unified chassis, which are swappable among sedans, SUVs, MPVs, pickups, or vans.
It is the next level of modulation production with benefits beyond reduced cost and shortened development cycle. As all the necessary EV components can be packaged in the chassis, the upper body allows wild re-imaginations of driving and even living space.
As alluring as everything sounds, there are technical challenges associated with skateboard chassis becoming a viable mainstream solution:
- Steer-by-wire and brake-by-wire systems are still new technologies in automotive with limited commercial success in high-speed vehicles. Extensive testing and validation are required.
- Decoupled hardware and software and standardized interfaces are essential to adopt skateboard chassis. An ecosystem of decoupled hardware and software is being formed in the coming years.
- Although traditional battery pack can be integrated into skateboard chassis, new technologies like cell-to-pack and cell-to-chassis bring additional benefits such as increased energy density, hence extended driving range.
- In-wheel motors can be a great alternative on skateboard chassis to further release the potential and imagination with vehicle design while the technology is relatively new to especially high-speed vehicles.
Skateboard chassis players in China
The four companies are developing skateboard chassis related products, each with slightly different approach to market and targeting certain application scenarios.
PIX Moving’s skateboard chassis solutions cover low-speed to high-speed autonomous driving scenarios with its own manufacturing plant. End products have been delivered to over 20 countries.
Last month, PIX revealed a robobus built on its skateboard chassis in collaboration with SPACE, an autonomous driving solution provider. The robobus will be mass-produced and delivered to SPACE in Q3 of this year and later to overseas market. The company also has a mini passenger car under development targeting the European market first.
Ecar Tech has been focused on chassis solutions for last mile delivery vehicles. It partners with autonomous driving solution providers like UISEE and White Rhino to create autonomous vans, which are then handed over to companies such as JD logistics and Alibaba for delivery services. The three parties form an alliance to ensure robodelivery’s scale operations. Ecar has delivered over 200 vehicles to domestic partners so far.
U Power and IT Box are both aiming to develop standard chassis and build passenger vehicles with human drivers. Their plans were introduced fairly recent and further details shall be expected later this year or the next.
Skateboard chassis commercialization opportunities
At the current stage of automotive production, a unified skateboard chassis enables fast development and production of vehicles in three company categories:
- Autonomous driving companies dedicated to robodelivery, robobus, robotaxi or robotruck
- Tech giants or companies from other industries looking to break into EV
- OEMs looking to expand coverage of EV segments
The first category, especially low-speed robodelivery and robobus, presents immediate opportunities for commercialization. Autonomous delivery vans and buses have been deployed in a number of cities across China. Once the trail operation reaches a certain stage, scaled supply of the vehicles will become crucial.
The other two will be fully explored in the coming years as electric vehicles continue to penetrate the market.
Besides startups, traditional OEMs and Tier 1s are looking to the skateboard chassis to potentially develop in-house. It is unclear how it will fit into the automotive value chain years down the road. However, with all innovations heading to the same direction, the future of autonomous driving, carbon neutrality, shared mobility may ultimately land on a skateboard.
