Topic: Electric Car Hub Motors

[JohnM]

Electric motors in the wheels have to be the way to go for electric cars to absolutely dominate ICE cars in terms of dynamics.  The control options are incredible.  I guess the only downside is unsprung weight.

Here is a notice which might interest you.

http://www.proteanelectric.com/en/protean-electric-announces-partnership-to-develop-in-wheel-motor-propulsion-system-with-faw-volkswagen/

Cheers,
John M.

[EV Dan]

How these can be salt friendly?
It is a neat idea and if VW bought into it perhaps we'll see this Jetta built.
Another question. It says 34 kg per motor (does that include the whole wheel?). Is HP also per motor or...? I don't like these sneaky press releases.

[JohnM]

78 hp which is fairly incredible for the weight.  So with 4 the total goes to over 300hp/vehicle or maybe 160 for fwd.

Hub motors for bikes don't seem to have an issue with salt and wet. 

Cheers,
John M.

[EV Dan]

It doesn't in my case, but I only ride when it's nice outside. Because of the hub design it appears it's a lot easier to seal it than this:

[Sir Osis of Liver]

Hub motors are a bad idea. Motor bearings don't like vibration and shock, to say nothing of windings. 34kg of unsprung weight will keep the engineers up late that's for sure.

Keep the motors inboard.