Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Hyundai Uni Wheel electric drive system could revolutionize EV design

autoblog.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

101–110 of 192 posts

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

#101

Post by emilecantin »

20after4 wrote: post #96
hooby wrote: 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…

The next logical step would be integrate the motor directly into the wheel. With 4 wheel drive motors it wouldn't require huge motors, they could each be small enough to be packed right up against the inside of the wheel. I'm actually surprised they would even need the gearbox. Why not just put four Outrunner[1] motors, one on each wheel, and let the wiring be the only thing that has to flex when the wheel is steered…

It's been invented in Québec in the 90s[1] by our national utility company, they had demo cars and everything. Then it was all swept under the rug after some secret deals with car manufacturers...

1. https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moteur-roue_d'Hydro-Qu%C3%A9be... (in French only, sorry!)

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

#102

Post by 20after4 »

Beijinger wrote: post #69
seltzered_ wrote: post #18

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…

Is Lordstown defunct? As far as I know, this Czech company uses in-wheel motors: https://spartan.mwmotors.cz/ev-traditional-technologies/

Looks like they already abandoned that idea: https://mwmotors.cz/luka-ev-traditional/

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

#103

Post by 20after4 »

Beijinger wrote: post #80
jacquesm wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That you save on a whole bunch of linkage and drive train components, four wheel drive without the associated complexity, that you can integrate the wheels, motors and brakes, cleaner airflow under the car and that the system as a whole can be lighter weight than the same package with motors near the centerline of the car, so you get somewhat better range. It also gives more space for batteries and/or more storage sp…

"cleaner airflow under the car"? Why should the airflow be cleaner?

I think they mean smoother or less turbulent airflow, not cleaner in the sense of less pollution.

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

#104

Post by mtrovo »

iampivot wrote: post #99

I guess they will still need a cv joint, just because wheels get out of alignment all the time. That aside, it would interesting if someone made a 3d model one could print to try this out at home for small robots.

Looking at the video on their website it seems the EV motors are supposed to be mounted directly into each wheel, then you only need to account for oscillations on the X and Y axis.

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

#105

Post by nottorp »

layer8 wrote: post #94
nottorp wrote: post #89

Hmm steering and ride quality questions aside - i'm no mechanical engineer... How much would damaging a wheel cost?

I was wondering if it would increase the incentive to steal car wheels.

s/wheels/engines in this case :)

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

#106

Post by jacquesm »

20after4 wrote: post #102
Beijinger wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is Lordstown defunct? As far as I know, this Czech company uses in-wheel motors: https://spartan.mwmotors.cz/ev-traditional-technologies/

Looks like they already abandoned that idea: https://mwmotors.cz/luka-ev-traditional/

Interesting, I wonder what the technical reasons were for the change. It has gone this way with pretty much every hub motor concept that I've seen so far, either they don't make it of the drawing board, or they end up abandoned at the prototyping stage. The GP had me wondering if someone had actually managed to conquer it but alas that doesn't seem to be the case. It's a neat little car though, reminds of the Daihatsu Copen that I had at some point.

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

#107

Post by DennisP »

benj111 wrote: post #65
husam212 wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Why not? You'd have an added complication of making the shock absorber the pivot point, and attaching the motor to the top point. Or having a separate pivot point where the motor or wheel can slide up and down. This does raise the question of why not just attach the motor straight to the wheel. The standard response to that is a hand wavey "unsprung mass". But has it actually been tried and shown to be an issue?

The wheel can move up and down relative to the motor, so you can still attach a shock absorber to the wheel, without the motor being involved. The video shows this at 2:36.
Post reply on HN