Not sure however, that this is a real good idea. Shock absorbers, where?
But interesting.
Drum brakes?? That’s backwards tech.
“Shock absorbers, where?”
Similar placement but increased unstrung weight is a concern.
It’s actually not a new idea. In wheel motors have been done before, the problem is the weight - specifically, the massively increased unsprung weight and all the ills that brings.
There are already several vehicles with hub-centric/in-wheel motors.
The article might have been more impactful if it hadn’t been penned by a grammar-school dropout.
Also, shock absorbers would be as they are now - struts, for example, mounted to a shock tower on top and in the middle of the lower control arm. Or just plain old MacPherson struts.
Trains with electric powered wheels are insanely powerful.
I wouldn’t buy an EV until very state in the US has as many nuclear power plants as France.
I’ll take the ...”(or not)”...
Didn’t need them disc brakes anyway.
I'll bet there's a large capacitor in the design, too.
I see LOTS of unsprung weight causing suspension and ride problems.
Aptera
“Shock absorbers, where?”
My first thought was, that is going to be a lot of unsprung weight. If anyone but BMW were doing this, I’d be more skeptical.
They’d be where they normally are. The motor is in the wheel so the shock absorber would be outside of the wheel just like today.
For me the question is you’d need to make sure they are perfectly in sync with the other wheels or you’ll get serious torque steer just driving normally.
Today’s EV WonderInvention is………..
I’ve been saying ever since Tesla came to be that the hard part of the electric car isn’t the electric, it’s the car. And it the mainstream auto mfgrs weren’t going to sit idly by and let Tesla take over. Once they got serious about it they would make electric cars with better electric than Tesla.
They work in giant earth moving machines. Might have trouble with high mile cars.
Lots of unsprung mass...
Will they have fancy meaningless commercials with loud music to sell this crap?
Color me skeptical. There’s the issue of unsprung mass, as others have mentioned. That degrades handling, bumpy road comfort, and control.
There’s the issue of cooling the motors and the brakes. Cooling air for them flows from the underside of the car out through the spokes in the wheels. If you block that flow completely, the brakes won’t cool. I know, I know, dynamic braking with the motor and battery reduces the heat from braking. The problem is that high speed stops require braking equivalent of several thousand Hoursepower. You simply can’t put that much energy into the motor and battery in several seconds. That gets turned into heat by the brakes. Drum brakes are also difficult to integrate with dynamic braking because they are very inconsistent.
In addition, if you can make a motor that’s 20% more efficient, you can so that with the motors already on EVs, too. It doesn’t have to go only inside wheels.
“for creating the first radial flux twin rotor motor”
Does it have a flux capacitor?