Hyundai and Kia have unveiled a brand new kind of electrical drive system that has the potential to unencumber appreciable house in electrical autos.

Known as the Common Wheel Drive System, or Uni Wheel for brief, the system strikes the electrical motor adjoining to the wheel, and the discount gear contained in the wheel, liberating up house between two wheels the place the motor usually sits.

Such a design offers many of the packaging advantages that in-wheel motors ship, however with out the sturdiness points of getting the precise motor mounted contained in the wheel.

The Uni Wheel sits the place you’d usually discover a CV joint, a element that the Uni Wheel replaces with a planetary gear set with a central solar gear, 4 pinion gears on all sides, and a surrounding ring gear related to the wheel. The electrical motor spins the solar gear which in flip engages the pinion gears to rotate the ring gear and related wheel.

A linkage permits the pinion gears to maneuver and observe the motion of the wheel because it drives over a street’s floor, one thing that permits torque supply to be fixed, whereas nonetheless enabling the wheel to maneuver freely. This helps enhance effectivity in addition to automobile management.

The design is scalable and modular in nature, which means a person Uni Wheel can be utilized for every wheel in an EV, permitting for extremely exact torque vectoring. And to additional assist dealing with, the Uni Wheel may be mixed with adjustable air suspension that may decrease the automobile throughout high-speed driving, or increase it for tough terrain.

Hyundai and Kia are nonetheless conducting sturdiness exams for the Uni Wheel however have already filed for eight patents with mental property places of work within the U.S., South Korea, and Europe. The automakers want to use the expertise not solely in future EVs however all types of mobility that depend on pushed wheels.

Hyundai has additionally beforehand proven a system often known as the e-Nook, which mixes suspension, steering, driving, and braking capabilities in a package deal sufficiently small to slot in the wheel hub of a standard automobile. The e-Nook permits a wheel to be turned as much as 90 levels, permitting a automotive to drive sideways.