Aluminum alloy robot hub processing technology more and more mature. New energy vehicles are now a forward looking area for the automotive industry and a development strategy for the Chinese government. They put forward the concept of “cornering overtaking” to catch up with the huge technological gap in the era of internal combustion engines. Among the driving technologies of new energy vehicles, one of the driving modes has a great development prospect, that is, the wheel hub motor technology. Hub motor technology, also known as wheel motor technology, its most important feature is the power, transmission and braking devices are integrated into the hub, thus greatly simplifying the mechanical part of the electric vehicle to make room for more. So using the hub motor to become the final form.
Of course, the wheel motor is not a big black technology, in the Porsche Porsche 1900, the first to create a front wheel equipped with electric wheel hub motor, in the 20th century, 70, the technology in the field of mining trucks and other applications. As for the wheel motor used in passenger cars, the Japanese manufacturers carry out this technology earlier, currently in a leading position, including GM, Toyota, including the international auto giants have also been involved in the technology. At present, there are domestic independent car manufacturers began to develop this technology, the back will give you a brief introduction to its domestic market applications and their prospects.
First, simply introduce the advantages and disadvantages of wheel motor:
Advantages 1: omit a large number of transmission components, so that the vehicle structure is more simple
For conventional vehicles, clutches, transmissions, driveshafts, differentials, and even the transfer case are essential components that not only weigh less and make the structure of the vehicle more complicated, but also require regular maintenance and Failure rate of the problem. But the wheel motor solves this problem very well. In addition to simpler construction, the use of in-wheel motor-driven vehicles leads to better space utilization and higher transmission efficiency.
Advantages 2: can achieve a variety of complex drive
The in-wheel motors, which are independently driven by a single wheel, make it easy to implement in either front-drive, rear-drive or four-wheel drive versions. The all-wheel drive is very easy to implement on a hub-motor-driven vehicle. In the meantime, the wheel hub motor can achieve the similar steering of the crawler-type vehicle through the different rotation speeds of the left and right wheels and even reverse the turning radius of the vehicle, which can be almost turned in the special situation (in this case, Tire wear larger), for special vehicles is valuable.
Advantage 3: Easy to adopt a variety of new energy vehicles technology
Many new energy models are powered by electric, so wheel motor drive also come in handy. Whether it is pure electric or fuel cell electric vehicles, or extended range electric vehicles, wheel motors can be used as the main driving force; even for hybrid models, you can also use the hub motor as a starting or accelerating acceleration, can be described as A multi-purpose machine. At the same time, many of the technologies used in new energy vehicles, such as regenerative braking (regenerative braking), can be easily implemented on in-wheel motor-driven vehicles.
Disadvantage 1: Increasing the unsprung mass and the hub moment of inertia, have an impact on the handling of the vehicle (no longer expand)
Disadvantages 2: Electric braking performance is limited, the brake system to maintain the operation needs to consume a lot of power (no longer expand)
Second, the wheel motor market applications
1, the achievements of the international giants
In 2013, Ford partnered with Schaeffler, a supplier of automotive components, to developing a rear-wheel drive Carnival with wheel motor drive technology. The in-wheel motors used on the carnival, a single weight of 53 kg, a lot higher than the weight of the traditional wheel device. Schaeffler’s wheel motors are water-cooled, with a maximum of 40 kW (54 hp) for a single motor and 33 kW for an average motor output of 80 kW (40 x 2) and 109 horsepower, The average output for continuous output is 66 kW (33 × 2), or 90 hp, with an output torque of up to 700 Nm.
At present, internationally renowned wheel motor manufacturers are Protean Motor Company in the United Kingdom, TM4 Company in Canada, Michelin Company, a famous tire manufacturer and Bridgestone Corporation in Japan.
Among them, the British company Protean Motor is a company specializing in the development and production of wheel motor company. Its in-wheel motors produce peak power of 75kW and peak torque of 1250NM at a mass of 36kg that can be mounted on wheels up to 18 inches in diameter and can recover up to 85% of braking energy.
It is understood that Protean has been working with a number of OEMs to develop prototypes and modified models of wheel hub motors, including the Ford F150-EV, VolvoC30 SeriesHEV, Vauxhall Vivaro, GAC Chuanqi mmpchiEV, Mercedes Benz E-class Barbos pure electric and hybrid models.
2, the layout of the domestic parts business
Wanan Technology and Protean equity strategic layout wheel motor technology, to develop 16-inch wheel hub motor to accelerate the hub motor technology in the country and industrialization.
Asia Pacific shares by way of equity investment Slovenia wheel motor technology company 10 million euros, accounting for 20% of the shares of the company. The two parties agreed to establish a joint venture in China, with Asia Pacific shares representing 51% of the joint venture and EU companies representing 49% of the joint venture. Asia-Pacific can leverage the technology of the EU-based Slovenia Hub Motor Technology to build a localized product in China to promote the development of China’s new energy automotive industry.
Hub motor in the bus application is more, such as BYD, Yutong, in the pass, Suzhou Jinlong; Hubei Tate Electrical Co., Ltd., easy to wheel power, etc. are also active in the layout.
As the hub motor with high efficiency, high integration advantages, and very fit with new energy vehicles in the field of new energy vehicles have very good prospects for development. However, due to the increased unsprung mass of the hub motor, the handling performance of the vehicle will be affected. In addition, there are many challenges to be overcome by the waterproof, dustproof, shockproof and heat dissipation. At the same time as the hub motor has not mass-produced, high cost, popularization also takes some time. For the traditional car prices, the tradition has always been that the drive back drive, driven by the drive, the chassis at the end of the plate, belonging to different parts, are quite different, in simple terms is Bridge Bridge, Lu return. Once popularized, the transmission system will be canceled, and the drive and the chassis will be deeply integrated. This will pose a very big challenge to the organization of the traditional vehicle enterprises. Traditional car prices want to promote this change, its determination no less than the Warriors broken wrist.
The future has come, who holds the direction of the latest technology, means to win the future. Tesla to Max, lithium iron phosphate battery in BYD; drive motor electronic control has matured and saturated, perhaps the hub motor is the next outlet?
