Charge Cars: Matt Begley & The Electrical Team
Matt Begley, our Head of Electrical Engineering, was the first member of the electrical team to walk through the doors of Charge Cars, almost at its inception in 2017. Matt was the third person to join the company right after Mark Bowen, our Head of Mechanical Engineering, and began to put together the amazing electrical engineering team we have today.
How It Started:
“I came from McLaren Automotive where I worked on 3 major supercars, but I was looking for something new and exciting as the industry was getting a little stagnant overall. At first I was hesitant to work on the Electric Mustang at Charge Cars, but the partnership with Arrival and Roborace really appealed to me, and the phrase “electric muscle” sounded awesome and certainly made me join the team!”
Electrical Team’s Work:
Matt’s team is responsible for everything electrical in our Electric Mustang. From low voltage to high voltage, if it has a connection, the electrical team bears responsibility for it. As such, the team plays a massive role in the safety, control, software and the performance of our vehicles.
“Our main goal is to be able to get the most out of the High Voltage Batteries, made by our technology partners Arrival, and make sure it delivers the highest possible performance on the road.”
“What really differentiates us from most of the electric car companies that re-make classic cars, is that we are working from the ground up. We are installing brand new brake systems, wiring and batteries, while many others are carrying out Tesla swaps. That is not us, we design and make our own hardware and provide a warranty with our brand new vehicles. We care about creating a car that is completely built from scratch, and delivers the desired performance.”
Challenges and Solutions:
The electrical team has to be adaptable while working on the Electric Mustang and one of the biggest aspects of their work is building a safe car; upgrading structural components, installing ABS (anti-lock braking system) and creating new safety systems. A crucial benefit of our Electric Mustang is that our batteries are packaged in the floor and not at the front of the car, which in the event of a crash, means that the damage will be minimal and creates a much safer driving environment. As Matt puts it: “It makes our job harder, but it makes our job proper.”
The electrical team takes pride in what they have accomplished here at Charge Cars. It takes an immense amount of work and responsibility to create new lighting systems, software and battery systems. However, it brings a great sense of satisfaction to own our technologies and build most of our components. Another in-house creation is our Lab car, a static electrical layout that reflects the architecture of the Electric Mustang. The Lab car lets them conduct infinite numbers of tests without taking the vehicle on the road. It allows the team to understand if any electrical or software components need adjustment. For all necessary tests to be done in our West London HQ, the Lab car has both 12V and 400V systems installed. It is a source of pride for our electrical team as many large scale automotive manufacturers do not have such technology at their disposal.
What’s To Come:
“I love seeing how everything is coming together and realising that these are the fruits of our labour. We received some incredible pieces of new technology at the end of 2020 including our lighting systems, switch packs and software features. All of that makes me incredibly excited for the work we have ahead of us in 2021 and sharing all of that with our fans and customers brings even more joy to our incredible team.”
The Charge Cars electrical engineers are now working closely with their Roborace and Arrival counterparts on a torque vectoring project. This technology will allow all our vehicles to apply torque down on the road in a smart way to create the ultimate driving experience.
“We will be able to regulate both the oversteer and understeer of our vehicles and create a truly personalised, torque vector enabled car for each customer with over-the-air updates.”
We are planning to start offering test drives in Q3 of 2021, and the first customer vehicle will be delivered during Q4.
