Michelin's Active wheel Technology

[Rahulkool]

Dunno if anyone has started a thread on this, but michelin has demonstrated a new technology in wheels.

They have put suspension/brakes/electric motor inside the wheel, here is a pic




The vehicle





Each motor makes around 250nm of torque so in total car has 1000nm of torque.

and there is no motor in the car so better space utilisation and also less lose of energy.
and you can convert any 2 wheel drive to 4 wheel drive by just changing the wheels lol .

[BaCkSeAtDrIVeR]

And where do the motors draw power from?

[Rahulkool]

Originally Posted by BaCkSeAtDrIVeR

And where do the motors draw power from?

Batteries are inside the car ....

[Maverick1977]

Wont this prove to be expensive in the long run? You tyres go bald and you have to change the suspension, brakes, electric motor basically everything that will go inside the wheel...
Dont know how much of this will work... At least in a super cost conscious country like ours.

[Nikhilb2008]

Originally Posted by Maverick1977

Wont this prove to be expensive in the long run? You tyres go bald and you have to change the suspension, brakes, electric motor basically everything that will go inside the wheel...
Dont know how much of this will work... At least in a super cost conscious country like ours.

Do you change your alloy wheels everytime your tyre goes bald ?

[jaibir]

Originally Posted by Maverick1977

Wont this prove to be expensive in the long run? You tyres go bald and you have to change the suspension, brakes, electric motor basically everything that will go inside the wheel...

You might be able to just change the tyre without changing the rest of the wheel

[Maverick1977]

I fully understand that we dont change the alloys or even the steel rims whilst changing tyres. However in this case all of it seems to be fused with one another. If individual parts are replacable then it would be great. If not, then what?

[BaCkSeAtDrIVeR]

Originally Posted by Rahulkool

Batteries are inside the car ....

Sorry, I still do not get it. GIven the kind of power required, we need more powerful batteries - so the standard batteries will not suffice. Extra batteries in car means no space saved.

[dadu]

Remember there is no engine in the car only batteries, so no extra space might be used.

Infact there might be space saving in this.

Originally Posted by BaCkSeAtDrIVeR

Sorry, I still do not get it. GIven the kind of power required, we need more powerful batteries - so the standard batteries will not suffice. Extra batteries in car means no space saved.

[adya33]

Wow Micheline seems to be inventing car inside the wheel

By having more mechanical parts near wheels the losses will be less.
Rahulkool could you please provide link to the article?

As for cost while changing tyres,

1. Because of car being electric normal running saving will be very much, comparitively changing entire assembly will be cheaper
2. Although entire wheel assembly is changed, other parts than tyres can be refurbished and re-used thus lowering cost impact to end consumer
3. By targetting volume the total cost can be lowered.

[karlosdeville]

Michelin arent the first with this idea. Ferdinand Porsche, still in his teens, sold a few novel cars in the early 1900s driven by electric motors in the hubs. More here

Lohner-Porsche Mixte Hybrid - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[Alfa_Kilo]

Originally Posted by karlosdeville

Michelin arent the first with this idea. Ferdinand Porsche, still in his teens, sold a few novel cars in the early 1900s driven by electric motors in the hubs. More here

Lohner-Porsche Mixte Hybrid - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Porsche had experimented with gasoline electric hybrids during the war, but his projects were not successful due to shortages of copper, maintainability and reliability issues.

[DerAlte]

It only seems to be a mechanical realignment to get the motor, suspension and brake into the rim internal space, nothing more. That way, a car designer (well, a few of them, really) will be able to select an off-the-shelf component from one manufacturer instead of 3, thus cutting down on design and manufacturing time (car, not the component) and a few design headaches. Upside: perfectly flat chassis - without the suspension intruding into the cabin space >> more space to keep batteries.

In practical terms, even Toyota is doing the same in their hybrids, the only difference being it is not utilizing fully utilizing the rim internal space (only the motor and brake go in there).

There is more to it than meets the eye, for it to be practically adopted:
* This is not a productionized component but a concept to prove some ideas
* Designers who have to look at performance (cornering, off/bad road, etc.) would tend not to consider it. Conversely, any company trying to make mass-market hybrid/electric econoboxes will find it attractive
* Companies like Honda, who prefer a single central electric motor mounted on the engine crank-shaft, will not be able to use it
* Serviceability concerns will need a long time (and a lot of on-road testing effort) to get over
* Suspension travel would be limited, so God save your coccyx

Surely they must have thought about bald tyres and punctures - being a French company they couldn't have missed the public awareness advertising on highways in France: "Please change your tyres if they are bald - it is dangerous on highways". One can be sure that tyre changing will not involve disconnecting the whole unit from the chassis!

[revvedup]

Doesn't the concept of unsprung mass apply here as well ? Now wouldn't the weight of the tyre wheel combo increase with the addition of the motor requiring the motor to put more effort in spinning the wheel ?

[Ricky_63]

Seems interesting but how feasible - only time will tell. This is experimental right ?

Cheers