[mkstowegnv]

The inherently self destructive nature of ICE's make it likely that ICE vehicles will always be more complex, less reliable/ higher maintenance than comparable all electric vehicles. The simplicity advantage of electric will soon take a quantum leap when driveshaft-free 4 motor all wheel drive vehicles hit the market [1].

On the other hand as long as batteries are heavy, ICE's will have a place in aircraft, and I would think the OP's technology could be huge for helicopters.

1 http://www.electric-vehiclenews.com/2017/06/hondas-all-elect...

[ak217]

> The simplicity advantage of electric will soon take a quantum leap when driveshaft-free 4 motor all wheel drive vehicles hit the market

You can't just eliminate the driveshaft because the wheel must be on a suspension. Remove the driveshaft and you have to put the motor on the wheel, increasing unsprung weight, exposing the motor and making high voltage parts subject to damage.

4 motors is more complex than 2 and doesn't buy you much except in niche packaging applications (like buses). As far as torque vectoring, you can achieve the same effect with differential braking (the duty cycle of torque vectoring is very short, so you don't lose any efficiency). A 2-motor Tesla is probably already the optimal passenger car configuration.

Agreed on everything else though.

[hevi_jos]

4 electric motors on wheels is extremely simpler than 2 motors, mechanical differentials and couplings.

I actually helped a mechanical engineer to create a simulator for car dynamics in software.

Today's cars are over engineered mechanically in order to support and resist the forces and torques from the motor to the wheels.

When you put the motors in wheel you basically reduce the required rigidity and the weight of the car substantially.

You point out some disadvantage of the approach. The biggest disadvantage of all is that is not a proven technology, like 100 years old driveshaft. That means the company that commercializes it will eat all the risk, like what happens when people exposes the motor-wheels to wet surfaces and some part of it is damaged. The lawsuits could bankrupt even the biggest company.

[ak217]

I agree with you. I should have clarified - 4 motors in the arrangement envisioned by Honda (see the link above) is more complex than 2. It doesn't eliminate any of the driveshafts.

I don't think we'll see in-wheel motors any time soon for the reasons you and I mentioned. (Also, in high performance applications (anything but econoboxes) won't you need to strengthen the suspension/chassis in some places even as you get to lighten it in others, since the motor is now torquing the rest of your suspension?)

[maxxxxx]

" 4 electric motors on wheels is extremely simpler than 2 motors, mechanical differentials and couplings."

Why not 2 on one axle? Do you really need all wheel drive?

[dreamcompiler]

Is anyone making hub motors for cars? The technology is probably workable now.

[rcxdude]

Also, while it's simpler, it's not really much cheaper (which is the big driver of a lot of automotive decisions). Motors and power electronics are far more expensive than the mechanical components which you are removing (and this is not easy to change, though there is more headroom for economies of scale on the EV motors ATM).

[perilunar]

> On the other hand as long as batteries are heavy, ICE's will have a place in aircraft, and I would think the OP's technology could be huge for helicopters.

The future of ICEs for aircraft is turbines, not piston engines with digital valves. Most commercial aircraft are already turbines; the only thing holding them back for light aircraft is cost.

[dsfyu404ed]

>when driveshaft-free 4 motor all wheel drive vehicles

Two words: unsprung weight.

CV shafts are gong nowhere for the foreseeable future.

[londons_explore]

Powerful electric motors are getting much much lighter.

Especially with liquid cooling, you could get a 100hp peak (20 hp continuous) motor inside 30 lbs if that was a design goal.

Motors for cars will get lighter as price competition pushes for designs involving less mass of raw materials.