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Hyundai Uni Wheel electric drive system could revolutionize EV design

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Re: Hyundai Uni Wheel electric drive system could revolutionize EV design

#51
Worth noting, placement at the wheel is somewhat arbitrary. There's nothing to prevent this contraption from working the other way around and being mounted at the chassis instead, aside from squeezing out every bit of space optimization. Axle support would be a concern either way. Controlling deflection of the drive axle adds a structural requirement, certainly a well supported bearing close to this device.

The gears will be turning at a large multiple of wheel speed, so will require roller bearings except for low power and speed use: a radial and thrust bearing for each end of each gear, or 22 of each per wheel. Increasing torque also increases the level of thrust support required for the moving gear carriers handling all of those helical gears.

It's a neat idea for highly space constrained applications that have to package a drivetrain very close to a wheel, which does end up being a rather niche use case. Mars rovers, perhaps. Trying to compete against CV joints in passenger vehicles with this would be quite difficult.

Re: Hyundai Uni Wheel electric drive system could revolutionize EV design

#52
post #21
post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's why station wagons and vans exist. SUVs do not provide more space, they just occupy more (on top of being dangerous to others)

Large station wagons no longer exist in the US market. The biggest one remaining is probably the Volvo V90, which is a nice car but can barely fit 5 people, and if you put a dog in the back then there's no room for cargo. It's also too expensive for most families; several large SUVs are actually cheaper. Minivans are a good option for some families. But they suck for towing trailers, and the ground clearance is terri…

>> the Volvo V90, which is a nice car but can barely fit 5 people

It's a lot bigger than my Prius, and that happily takes 4 (5 with a squeeze) climbers with all their gear!

Re: Hyundai Uni Wheel electric drive system could revolutionize EV design

#53
post #47

The thing I see not mentioned in the article/video, is how the wheels can tilt/turn/angle - without needing a CV joint again. The designs seems to cover all the motion of the wheel in the suspension - but I don't see how this could accommodate steering. Is this for back wheel drive only? Curiously the animations shown in the video, show the uni wheel used in the front of a front wheel drive car - but without ever sho…

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Re: Hyundai Uni Wheel electric drive system could revolutionize EV design

#55

FWIW, there was recently a now-defunct car company (Lordstown motors) that utilized an in-wheel motor from the company Elaphe ( https://in-wheel.com/en/technology/#in-wheel-motor-technolog... ) I think the tradeoff is between more flexibility & fewer parts (no cv joints) but possibly more rolling resistance. But watch the video, this uni-wheel thing is different. It isnt an in-wheel motor, more of a cv-joint alternat…

There's another startup, Aptera, which is ostensibly still working towards producing a vehicle using Elaphe hub motors. Interestingly they are efficiency focused so I wonder how the motors are working out for them in that respect.

Very well in fact, you have to look at the whole drivetrain efficiency, not just the motor. Elaphe has a webinar on this topic on their youtube channel, look it up.

Re: Hyundai Uni Wheel electric drive system could revolutionize EV design

#56
post #47

The thing I see not mentioned in the article/video, is how the wheels can tilt/turn/angle - without needing a CV joint again. The designs seems to cover all the motion of the wheel in the suspension - but I don't see how this could accommodate steering. Is this for back wheel drive only? Curiously the animations shown in the video, show the uni wheel used in the front of a front wheel drive car - but without ever sho…

Maybe the motor is supposed to turn with the wheel, that doesn't sound like a good idea.

Re: Hyundai Uni Wheel electric drive system could revolutionize EV design

#57

Is there some way that this or similar can be copied by all automakers, or is this all patented by Kia/Hyundai in such a way that most improvements are completely locked in?

Assuming the technology has actual value, Kia/Hyundai would likely be more incentivised to license it to other vehicle-makers, than to keep an exclusive license for themselves.

Manufacturers often buy gearboxes from suppliers instead of producing them. Hyundai does have Hyundai Transys as separate company for transmissions, and they would likely be happy to sell complete devices, not just licenses.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Hyundai_transmission...

Re: Hyundai Uni Wheel electric drive system could revolutionize EV design

#60
This wouldn't have worked for ICE cars, because in order to have a reasonable range of up-and-down movement the gear ratio needs to be quite high (ie, the pinion gear has to be much smaller than the ring gear). It's 6.2:1 in the article, about 2x what's appropriate for the top gear on an ICE car.
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