"The flatness of [our platform] eliminates all of these brackets. We have hundreds less parts in this because we don't have a steering column. We don't have strut towers. We don't have all these items that are maintenance, noisy, take up space," he added.
"It's a lot easier to perfect a new manufacturing method and it's much more efficient, which reduces cost as well as ecological impact, not to mention shipping in parts."
Traditional automakers are "doing more [modifications] to an ICE chassis, versus really spending the time and money to re-create something totally different, which is why there's so much demand for this type of a platform."
"We actually wanted to do something very different," Aquila said.
"It's to not compete with Tesla, but to build something that has multiple use cases and that can be adapted to the use cases."
Aside from the vehicle architecture, there are other changes in manufacturing that can accelerate the shift to EVs, said Craig Renneker, vice president, driveline product engineering at American Axle and Manufacturing, during Automotive News' Shift Mobility Forum, which was part of CES in January.