REE Automotive

SoftWheel Before changing its name to REE Automotive, the company was called SoftWheel. SoftWheel was founded in 2011 by Gilad Woolf. Woolf engaged the services of Amihai Gros and the services of Ahishai Sardes of Ziv Av Engineering, who developed a wheelchair wheel with an embedded suspension system. In 2014 SoftWheel raised three million dollars in an effort to enter the electric bicycle market with its in-wheel selective suspension system, which is stiff while riding on level surfaces, and becomes shock-absorbent upon impacts. The wheels retailed at $1800 a pair. Shift to the automotive industry Faced with its investors potentially pulling funding and shutting down the company, SoftWheel began developing in-wheel shock absorbers for bicycles, motorcycles, and automobiles. By mid-2017, the company planned to manufacture products for bicycles and develop a product for automobiles, raising a total of 15 million USD, with plans for two more assembly lines in addition to its existing ones for wheelchair wheels in Israel and the United States. The company raised an additional $25 million in 2018 in an effort to pivot its business to the automotive market, for a total of $40 million, partly from investors in the automotive industry such as Mitsubishi and Musashi Seimitsu. Daniel Barel announced the company's new name, REE, at the EcoMotion convention in June 2019, where he unveiled an automotive platform for autonomous delivery vehicles. The name-change signifies "reinventing" the car by discarding the mechanical connections between the wheels in favor of electronic by-wire control. Initial stock market financing The company expected to raise 436 million USD through a special-purpose acquisition company merger with 10X Capital Venture Acquisition Corp, of which $200 million were expected from 10X Capital investors. Three-quarters of the 10X Capital shares were redeemed by investors upon the merger, reducing the raised capital by about $153 million. A total of $285 million were raised by the company when going public on NASDAQ on July 23, 2021, resulting in about $318 million in cash on-hand, and a valuation of about three billion dollars. The CEO said that while vertical automotive companies require 20 billion dollars or more to develop their supply chain and manufacturing capabilities, the company is set to achieve serial manufacturing and commercialization of its first product line through its horizontal business alliances using its $300 million in cash. The company had no substantial revenue by February 2023, when it laid-off 31 employees which were approximately 11% of its workforce. The company expected in May 2023 that its cash runway will finance its operations past its test fleet deliveries and into the scaling-up of its business. Planned production at scale After beginning test-vehicle production in 2023, the company raised $24 million and planned to raise a further $10 million in working capital for production in 2024 and for tooling for its full-scale production in the United States in 2025, alongside a 25% reduction in its cash burn rate in 2023 and a further planned 25% reduction in 2024. The company revised its production plans in 2024, choosing to utilize the contract manufacturing services of Roush Industries and the supply-chain services of Samvardhana Motherson, reducing its cash burn rate while pushing the start of production to the fourth quarter of 2024 and the start of customer deliveries of scale-produced vehicles to the first half of 2025. Motherson invested $45 million in REE Automotive which the company intends to use as working capital for full-scale production in 2025. The company expected as of January 2025 to start deliveries of scale-production vehicles in the first half of 2025, break-even for BOM on the sale of several hundreds of vehicles in the second half of 2025, and positive EBITDA on the sale of several thousands of vehicles in 2026. Business model REE Automotive was structured for a capex-light business model with horizontal alliances with tier-one manufacturers. Among its partners are American Axle, Mahindra & Mahindra, Musashi Seimitsu, and KYB. The company said that unlike Tesla or Rivian who spend billions of dollars building manufacturing capacity, REE Automotive will use its partners' existing excess manufacturing capacity which allows it to quickly scale up production. The company assembled parts provided by its partners onto its corner modules and platforms at the company's manufacturing facilities. The company aimed to provide, along with its partners, "a full turn-key solution" for electric vehicle fleets, which includes the sale of full vehicles, and services such as vehicle financing and charging infrastructure. These services were meant to allow companies' fleets to transition from internal combustion engine vehicles to electric vehicles. Small commercial electric vehicle startups like REE Automotive attempted to fill the void in commercial EV offerings left by traditional automotive manufacturers in the late 2010s. The startup companies expected to beat the traditional manufacturers to market, or partner with them, or be acquired by them. Traditional manufacturers like Ford and GM have since started to fill the commercial EV void, bringing the small manufacturers into direct competition with them and leading to difficulties in raising funding and generating sales to large customers. This put small manufacturers like Arrival, Canoo, Lordstown, and ELMS in financial difficulties. REE Automotive hoped to overcome these issues with its P7 offerings and its horizontal business model. Pivot to software REE halted production in 2025 after it couldn't secure major automaker partners or large institutional buyers. == Technology ==

Corner modules and drive shaft. Green: steering mechanism. Red: wishbone suspension with twin dampers. Black: brake and park brake. The core technology developed by REE Automotive is the corner module. These modules are located directly adjacent to each wheel, housing all of the vehicle's drive systems. The modules are controlled by-wire, eliminating the use of mechanical connections that are traditionally housed throughout the chassis, like a steering column, drive-train, and so on. This design allows for a flat platform chassis with more space for passengers or cargo, and easy replacement of each module. Following its fundraising shortfall, the company focused on developing and bringing a single product line to market, Company representatives presented a production-intent P7 corner module in March 2023 at Work Truck Week, saying the module is fastened to the platform on a single plane entirely from the side of the vehicle, with no special tools. The P7 platform's four corner modules are interchangeable, simplifying manufacturing and maintenance. A module may be removed and a new module fastened to the platform in 20 minutes, with a further 40 minutes of calibration for the vehicle to become operational again. Prototypes and concept cars Autonomous vehicles REE Automotive presented its first public prototype at the EcoMotion convention in June 2019. Flatformer employs the flat REE platform chassis The Flatformer features a flat chassis platform that can have different chassis bodies interchanged autonomously on top of it, such as a body with package delivery cubbies, a body providing retail services, and a body for shuttling passengers. Autonomous vehicle developer Navya announced in April 2021 it partnered with REE for development of level 4 autonomous vehicles. REE provided a passenger shuttle prototype in 2023 for the Belfast Harbour autonomous shuttle Harlander project. Airbus fitted a production P7-C truck with an A350 cockpit, using it in 2023 and 2024 to reproduce the ground taxiing of aircraft and develop autonomous taxiing capabilities before integrating them into an A350. Trucks Morgan Olson demonstrated its Proxima delivery van in July 2022, a class 5 truck powered by the P7 modules and platform. == Production ==

REE Automotive showcased its first prototype production corner module at CES 2022. At the ACT Expo in May 2023, the company showcased its pre-production P7-C class 4 cab chassis truck. The prototype P7 corner modules and chassis underwent road tests and long-term durability tests of 20-year-equivalent usage, leading to production-intent prototypes suitable for of service life The P7 platform was initially outfitted with Microvast battery packs that have been tested for a service life of 5000 to 7000 full charge cycles. Platforms may be outfitted with two, three, or four 42 kWh battery packs depending on range and payload considerations. REE ceased operations at the Coventry facility in 2025. The assembly line was divided into automated and manual stations, with the corner modules being carried from one station to the next on autonomous robots. The assembled modules were then attached to a platform chassis, and finally a chassis body was attached. Twenty-five production-intent test vehicles have been manufactured in 2023 for internal validation. Contract manufacturing The first US production facility in Greater Austin, Texas, was scheduled to begin operations in 2023 with plans to manufacture a few hundred vehicles in 2024, The company sold individual trucks to rental companies such as Penske and U-Haul so they can evaluate them for their truck rental fleets. The company had orders for over 900 trucks by December 2024 and planned to start fulfilling orders in the first half of 2025. Production halt and pivot to software REE halted production in 2025 after it couldn't secure major automaker partners or large institutional buyers. The company announced in May 2025 that it will pause its production plans and focus instead on their software offerings to OEMs and technology companies. ==References==