The may not sound like much to get excited about, but that basic concept will come to define a lot of the cars in our electric—and, later—autonomous future. That’s what the startup company Canoo is planning, and the results seem pretty cool, like a very modern take on the iconic Microbus. So far we’ve mostly focused on the box part of this equation, the body and design of the Canoo. It seems Canoo wants us to pay more attention to the skateboard part, , and have been tearing ass around the desert in it.

Canoo’s modular platform is similar to the sorts of skateboards almost every EV maker is putting together these days: batteries in the floor in the middle, motors at one or both ends, and all the other crap packed down as tight as possible, ideally.

Canoo’s platform makes 500 horsepower and 331 pound-feet of torque, so it should be quick and potentially fun. It’s all drive-by-wire and highly modular and flat, so the thinking is various bodies could be easily popped on this thing to produce a wide range of vehicles.

Or, like they’re showing now, you could skip the body entirely and just slap on a seat and some controls.

Canoo’s calling this the “Skatekart” and they got racing driver to hoon the crap out of it.

Here’s what Price said about driving it:

“I was blown away by how fun it was to drive,” said Price. “The overall performance was impressive. The skateboard felt powerful, with smooth and dynamic handling, especially during high speed cornering. The drive-by-wire steering was something new for me and it felt like it was built for the track.”

...and here’s what it looked like:

Going fast is fun and all, but us space-utilization freaks know the real excitement is this: Canoo says this is the flattest electric vehicle platform, already a pretty flat category. Here’s how they tell it:

“Canoo has developed the world’s flattest skateboard platform, which enables class-leading passenger and cargo volume on a small vehicle footprint. For example, , which will offer the interior space of a large SUV, but on the exterior footprint of a compact car.

To help achieve this, Canoo’s suspension utilizes a double wishbone with two fiberglass leaf springs, mounted transversely in the front and rear of the platform. The dampers are mounted to the frame, eliminating the need for large shock towers that take up vital cabin space. The entire suspension system is incorporated into the skateboard and sits below the height of the tires.”

This genuinely is cool, especially if Canoo is smart and will sell the platform independently, re-creating the sort of kit-car ecosystem that the old VW Beetle platform once created.

EV body swap

, and if they’re snoozing on it, Canoo should leap on the idea.

In the meantime, this looks pretty fun. Canoos with bodies are expected to launch in 2022 in a subscription model, then as a delivery vehicle and a sport vehicle.