> Putting a motor on each wheel — or at least one on each axle — could translate into hair-raising EV driving performance.<p>I don't understand this. My Plaid Tesla has a motor on each of the rear axles, and it's direct coupled to the wheel. The already are doing torque vectoring.<p>Like all things in engineering, the trade-off's are critical. This article doesn't go at all into the pros/cons of the approach Tesla (and others) are doing as opposed to this approach.<p>As a general rule, if Tesla isn't doing it already I suspect it's either not economically feasible, difficult to manufacture, or otherwise has drawbacks they've judged signifigant.<p>... with that said, bring on the competition. The whole world wins with every improvement to transport and electrification!
The perspective of this piece is a little suspicious:<p>-ferrari still maintain that they will never produce electric cars<p>-the concept of hub motors is a fad that has come and largely gone. Putting the motors inside the wheels leads to reliability concerns<p>-motors with smaller diameter will need more power for the same performance of a larger diameter motor, and the battery is the heavy part<p>Normally each of these i'd let slide as journalist ignorance but the combination makes this read like ICE propaganda to me.
While I like the technology aspect, I am secretly rooting for expensive cars to become uncool.<p>Small boring self-driving cars, possibly collectively owned instead of big expensive individually owned cars often used as a proof of social status.
If you're interested in these things, here's an article about Koenigsegg's electric motor: <a href="https://www.roadandtrack.com/news/a38940998/koenigsegg-quark-electric-motor/" rel="nofollow">https://www.roadandtrack.com/news/a38940998/koenigsegg-quark...</a>
Isn't this more about economically producing low-volume motors, than about designing in-wheel motors? Production process seen in the video looks way simpler, requiring far less jigs and process adjustments compared to more typical EV motors.<p>I don't see Ferrari or performance cars divisions of Mercedes suddenly starting to ship 500hp motors at 10k units/year volume, so the production process would have to adjust according to their volumes, and to me this design seem to do just that.
from the manufacturer's viewpoint the main problem with EVs is that there is much less scope for differentiation in the power train. Most manufacturers are going to be using similar battery technology. I think that motor technology will also become commoditized in due course. The only areas where manufacturers can genuinely differentiate themselves will be styling and software.
> <i>All EVs offer the sensation of instant acceleration</i><p>...but of course luxury brands will happily charge you ten times more for that little bit of extra acceleration. Which also ensures future noob owners of Ferraris will keep crashing their eye-wateringly expensive cars (hopefully not causing others to get hurt in the process).
I love this concept.<p>It just makes so much sense in an electric vehicle to have Axial/Hub motors, something I'd expect Tesla to lead on tbh.
should have been in the "Make it less dumb" step.
Why do EVs of the current age look so douchie? I wouldn't be caught dead in one.<p>Tesla model S, X, and Y.<p>All Lucid models.<p>Mercedes and Ferraris.<p>Why can't they look neutral?<p>I want low-key, efficient, safe, and functional. And ideally more than 35 American miles of range.
Merc's and ferrari's big edge is r&d. F1 provides a lot of research for the batteries for the big companies who want to produce high hp ev's, Ferrari and Merc. Merc holds the world record of 1000km driven on a single charge. Its a concept car but still. They mention specifically that they used merc f1 engineers with also the help of the r&d of the f1 team. In the long run tesla will just be another car company with the big guys back on top because of this r&d from motorsport. Not just merc either eventually NASCAR will use hybrid v8s and companies like toyota, chevy, ford etc. will get all of this research and put it into real cars. This is speculation but its been happening with combustion engines for years. A lot of the reason for good MPG cars is motorsport.
Here's the link for the WR EV Merc: <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/peterlyon/2022/04/13/world-record-mercedes-benz-vision-eqxx-travels-1000-km-on-a-single-charge/?sh=5dbbeea64796" rel="nofollow">https://www.forbes.com/sites/peterlyon/2022/04/13/world-reco...</a>