All hail hub motors
Tier 1 automotive supplier Mahle Industries displayed this special VW hybrid which drives the front axle with an internal combustion engine but has an electric hub motor in each of the rear wheels. The hub motors are from Protean Electric and put both motor stator and rotor inside the wheel itself, along with a friction brake. Protean hub motors can provide up to 80 kW peak. Future versions of the VW demonstrator are likely to include Protean’s torque vectoring software that will distribute torque to individual hub motors in a way that provides better handling, particularly through corners, than is available through a conventional differential.
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