REE Automotive to build commercial EV plant in Coventry

Electric vehicle platform maker REE Automotive is to open its first European integration centre in Coventry, UK.

The firm says it will use the site to build its P7 electric platform for commercial vehicles such as walk-in delivery vans, buses, and recreational vehicles.

These electric CV platforms will be made using cloud-based robotic assembly lines, which the first expected to become operational later this year.

REE Automotive said that the Coventry site will also operate as the blueprint for all future REE integration centres, with expected capacity of 10,000 vehicle sets this year.

It added that its North American integration centre in Austin, Texas, is expected to double global capacity to 20,000 vehicle sets in 2023 by replicating the highly automated cloud-based architecture of its European sibling.

Josh Tech, REE’s chief operating officer said: “Our cloud-based robotic manufacturing system will be the digital backbone for our assembly lines and give us the local capability to manage our customer-specific manufacturing operations, while also allowing us to quickly share and scale best practices internationally across all plants.”

The Coventry site is approximately 130,000 square feet, includes industry 4.0 technologies and will be partially powered by solar energy.