Hyundai is constant work on in-wheel hub motors for electrical automobiles, two latest patent filings point out.
One submitting, revealed by america Patent and Trademark Workplace (USPTO) Nov. 14, 2024, after being submitted by Hyundai’s affiliated expertise provider, Hyundai Mobis, earlier within the yr, covers a drive mechanism that might enable a hub-mounted electrical motor to spin a wheel. This may include a wheel bearing, outer race, and a pace reducer incorporating a hoop gear couple to the bearing.
Hyundai in-wheel drive unit patent picture
The second doc, revealed by the USPTO Oct. 29, 2024, and initially filed by Hyundai Mobis Feb. 13, 2022, is for an “in-wheel working machine.” That is basically a setup for incorporating a gearshift mechanism into the rotor of a hub-mounted motor.
Whereas not all patented concepts make it to manufacturing, these two patents point out Hyundai is at the least nonetheless growing in-wheel motors, having teased some comparable ideas prior to now, together with the e-Nook modular steering and propulsion system. It packaged in-wheel motors together with steering and braking {hardware} into modules that may very well be put in in any respect corners of a automobile, permitting extra packaging freedom and the power to rotate wheels as much as 90 levels.
Hyundai in-wheel working machine patent picture
Hyundai and Kia in 2023 additionally unveiled another design that break up the distinction between standard motors and in-wheel motors. Known as the Common Drive System—or Uni Wheel—it moved motors nearer to the wheels, however not into them.
Different automakers, similar to Ferrari and Toyota, have patented in-wheel motor designs. China’s Dongfeng claims to be the first to make use of in-wheel motors in a manufacturing passenger automobile, though the Lordstown Endurance pickup truck additionally used them earlier than its manufacturing stalled. Aptera additionally plans to make use of in-wheel motors for its three-wheeler, however that automobile might be an autocycle, not a automobile.