E-Mobility Engineering 015 l EMotive Scarab off-road truck dossier l In Conversation: Giulio Ornella l Hall effect and magnetic sensors focus l Challenge of batteries for heavy-duty EVs l Alpha Motor Corporation digest l Automated charging insight l HVAC systems focus

and several overseas deployments with military forces as a civilian contractor, gaining hands-on operational support and maintenance experience with end- users. He explains that the driveline architecture is based on in-wheel propulsion with, in the development prototype, a Dana electric motor coupled to a Lancereal reduction hub in each wheel. The modular design enables any number of axles up to six to be driven and/or steered. Feeding that propulsion system in the Scarab prototype is a Webasto battery pack in an enclosure attached under the chassis rails between the centre and rear axles. An identical enclosure between the centre and front axles is empty at the moment, but it could house a second battery pack or a range extender. Williams says EMotive is keeping its options open here, and could install an IC engine-based generator with several fuel options, including hydrogen when H 2 combustion engines become available (from around 2024, he reckons) or a fuel cell stack. The company is now looking at how much power it can get from an IC-engined generator that will fit the available space, he notes. “Combining a battery and range extender opens up applications such as underground mining,” Regan adds. “We are speaking to one company that uses explosives to extract minerals and now has to have three vehicles: one road vehicle to bring the explosives to the site, changing to an overground off-road vehicle, then changing again to one that can be run safely underground. With the Scarab, they could travel to the site on roads using the range extender, then switch to battery power to go underground.” Chassis and suspension With an emphasis on ease of manufacture at reasonable cost, the chassis structure consists of a pair of main rails that run from the front of the vehicle to the back, and are made a chassis design. “By 2019, they had come up with a good, robust design that could be manufactured in volume,” Regan says. At that point, Palmer decided he needed an in-house development capability, and brought in electrical and control systems engineer Regan as MD. Regan brings experience of writing control software for power station gas turbine generators at UK company Centrax, and of managing, engineering and funding hybrid and electric powertrain design at Ashwoods Automotive, not far from Centrax, where he was also involved in the development of the innovative commercial vehicle telematics platform Lightfoot. Once on board, Regan began building the team that includes operations manager Josh Roles, chief design engineer Steve Eldridge and head of systems engineering Simon Williams. Regan emphasises that the contractor’s design provided them with a sound basis for development. “We have made some major tweaks and modifications in the past few years, but the bones of what they designed are all still there,” he says. “From day one, it was built around the electric architecture; there would have been no point in taking what was a combustion- engined chassis and trying to shoehorn in an electric drivetrain. “All the reports from Bruce’s early testing were provided to the contractor. They were given a brief on what the electric powertrain needed to do in terms of performance, and they designed the mechanicals around that using our specification, results from prototype tests and their own experience to create the current architecture.” Driveline architecture Williams spent 18 years with UK specialist military vehicle developer Supacat, including a period in charge of the electrification of the Jackal platform Dana in-wheel motors are 48 V radial flux units used for development work. They will be replaced by 800 V axial flux units in the production version (Author’s photo) Autumn 2022 | E-Mobility Engineering 21 Dossier | EMotive Scarab off-road truck