As the idea of one company doing it all in autonomous vehicle technology has fallen by the wayside, makers of individual parts of that ecosystem are now being given an opportunity to shine.

Cenntro Electric Group is one of those companies and it made its latest statement at CES in its shot at prime time.

The electric vehicle company is into platforms, as in creating vehicle platforms that others can add onto.

Cenntro makes all-electric chassis that other integrators can decide how to use, an interesting approach, especially with the current required focus on being a core part of the ecosystem.

Marianne McInerney, chief marketing officer, showed me all the new models the company introduced at CES, with various sizes and scopes.

Cenntro Electric Group’s all-electric chassis

Cenntro’s iChassis lets third parties create and use their own software and design hardware to control and maneuver the vehicle and to develop new applications that they decide they need.

From a hardware standpoint, Cenntro basically creates the vehicle platform and then others decide what to add atop it.

One example shown was a portable vending machine, a relatively simple application addition to the automated vehicle base.

A similar approach by others was shown at a previous CES event, but it was too early for the market to comprehend. 

Now that many in the industry have come to realize they need others to help them succeed, companies and approaches like those of Cenntro are moving up in the value chain.

As the IoT market evolves, a key success component is timing.

This article first appeared on IoT World Today. To get the latest IoT news straight to your inbox, subscribe to the newsletter.