DG Innovate plc (LON:DGI), the advanced research and development company pioneering sustainable and environmentally considerate improvements to electric mobility and energy storage, has announced an update on the progress of the Company’s collaboration with tier one commercial vehicle and off-highway axle and transmission suppliers, BRIST Axle System S.r.l. and BASE Studio Arge ve Teknoloji Sanayi A.S., as announced on 23 February 2023.
Following the signing of the Collaboration Framework Agreement in February the parties have now agreed a detailed plan to develop a series of commercial offerings, incorporating DG Innovate’s technology. The objective of the collaboration is to establish a significant position in the growing commercial vehicle electric drivetrain market, targeting both new OEM and aftermarket conversion opportunities.
These offerings are planned to comprise:
Remote Mount Motors
This relatively simple and straightforward solution for the retrofit market will comprise a remote mounted motor, converting an existing diesel powered bus or commercial vehicle to an electric powertrain. With this solution DG Innovate’s integrated Pareta® motor/inverter would be mounted underneath the vehicle in the chassis and connected via a driveshaft to the axle differential. The Company believes its Pareta® motor technology can readily be used as a remote mounted solution in many retrofit applications, both for vehicles incorporating BRIST or BASE axles and those from third parties.
Integrated E Axle
The integrated E-Axle will be a complete assembly where the Pareta® motor and drive assembly is mounted in a fully integrated manner within a BRIST axle. The integrated E-Axle will be a key joint development and integration project for the parties to ensure the axle will be a ‘plug and play’ assembly for axles up to 13 ton rating.
This product will target the retrofit bus market initially whilst in parallel be offered to Bus OEM’s for new vehicle build. This newly designed integrated axle will not only release space to accommodate more battery capacity within the existing chassis, but being designed as a drop in replacement axle, it can be readily and cost effectively fitted, giving significant additional usable life extension to vehicles, along with a reduction in energy cost.
The integrated E-Axle is expected to have additional future applications, including light commercial vehicles, and vocational vehicles.
Independent Corner Drive Axle
This solution will see each wheel driven independently using the Company’s electric drive technology. Applicable to a range of 2 and 4 wheel drive commercial vehicles, this offering will be particularly attractive for 2, 4, 6 or 8 wheel drive military applications and will build on the Company’s existing work in this area.
Commenting, Peter Tierney, Chief Executive Officer of DG Innovate, said: “Our collaboration with BRIST and BASE is already accelerating DG Innovate’s transition to becoming a full-scale commercial supplier. Since signing the Collaboration Framework Agreement at the end of February we have been working hard with BRIST and BASE to formulate an appropriate product strategy to ensure we both maximise the market opportunity and can achieve commercial revenues as soon as possible. Leveraging our partners’ already significant industry presence we are jointly developing new solutions that are targeted at readily accessible and existing market demand. We believe this will provide the most rapid route to market for our technology and I look forward to providing further updates on this collaboration, and on our other areas of focus, in due course as matters progress.”
Commenting, Remzi Oduncu, Founding & Managing Partner of BASE, said: “With DG Innovate we have now put in place our initial product roadmap. We clearly see that both DG Innovate and BASE have similar disruptive capabilities complementary to each other: A dynamic and agile approach to support end users in providing a differentiated solution which is both technically advanced and also commercially attractive.”
Commenting, Ahmet Hacıyunus, Founding & Managing Partner of BRIST, said: “The exciting technology and agile innovation capability of DG Innovate matches well with our modular axle and transmission portfolio. This collaboration and the product roadmap enhances our value proposition to grow our share in the UK bus market. We have a clear intent to grow in the UK market and DG Innovate collaboration is a critical pillar in this ambition.”
