Underbody look at Range Extender Engine location and crash protection; also oil cooler

[Golfguy]

Good underbody / undercarriage photos and analysis of the Range Extender Engine location and crash protection. Also a look at oil cooler -- by The Autopian --

Have a look — the gasoline range extender sits at the very rear of the frame under the rear cargo area, with what appears to be…a fuel tank (?) just ahead of the battery.

Check out that red bit shown on the right of the image below. Very interesting!

I reached out to Kevin Harty, who works at Munro and Associates to get his initial thoughts. Here are a few of them, including a note that there may need to be more crash protection for that rear range extender on the production model:

Unlike the Rivian it seems like the pack basis the rear more. I do think they might end up with more protection for the Rex with those short overhangs. Not a lot of free crush space or air gap between the E Beam.

Unlike the Rivian it seems like the pack biases the rear more.

Looking where the fuel filler neck is, I would guess that front gap in the battery area is for fuel.

Also no B pillar cab mount. Also Toyota-esque.

It’s interesting that a lot of the frames cross car structure runs over the battery versus under. Likely for service and side impact.

Also seems like a bulkhead of sorts at the front of the frame/battery area.

No delibrate [IIHS Small Overlap Rigid Barrier Crash Test] countermeasures. So maybe its all defensive in that bulkhead area.

Very interesting. There is a bulkhead just ahead of the battery. Maybe that’s for protection of that tank. I also showed Kevin the rear axle, which he refers to as the “EBeam axle.” Check it out — the motor is actually mounted directly to the rigid axle, just above. You can also see an oil cooler:

Here’s another angle (I think this is the Terra):

And here you can see the axle on the gearbox side (passenger side):

And here it is from the front. You can see there’s actually a removable pan at the front of the axle:

“The EBeam looks similar to a lot of others I have seen for customers. Weight and [road] impact to the inverter could be a concern,” he told me, mentioning that the EBeam is currently being looked at predominantly by commercial vehicle manufacturers.