Benteler Automotive is hoping to win business in the growing market for electric cars with a platform that is ready for series production.

The German supplier developed the architecture, which it calls Electric Drive System 2.0, with Robert Bosch.

The goal is to sell the platform to either established automakers or startups, which could modify it to their specifications and add bodywork and other components as needed.

Benteler showed the platform to the public at the Frankfurt auto show in September and at this month's CES in Las Vegas.

The supplier has already signed agreements with the high-performance electric startup Automobili Pininfarina and the Chinese real estate company Evergrande to use the technology.

"This platform is modular and scalable," Marco Kollmeier, Benteler's head of E-Mobility, said in an interview. It can be adapted for SUVs or cars, from the larger end of the compact segment through the midsize and large segments, Kollmeier said.

Automakers using the platform "don't have to start from scratch, which means they can reduce costs and time to market," he said.Benteler is already working on an electric vehicle platform for smaller cars, as well as adapting the existing one for big people-mover vehicles such as minibuses.