Photo: Protean
The Aptera may become the first modern electric vehicle to present in-wheel motors – if it arrives before the Lightyear One. Sourced by Elaphe Propulsion, the solution is core to the efficiency proposition that created the electric trike. Another company that bets on hub motors is Protean. A recent new partnership with Dongfeng shows the company wants to help sell an electric car with them as soon as possible.
According to Protean, it started collaborating with the Chinese carmaker in 2016. The two companies have then created the AWD derivative of the Dongfeng Fengshen E70, also called Dongfeng Aeolus E70. This car seems to be crucial to the Chinese carmaker as a testbed for several new technologies.
On January 22, 2022, Dongfeng announced it would be the first vehicle to present solid-state batteries. Unfortunately, all the company has so far are 50 units of the E70 equipped with these cells. That makes them practically prototypes.
The E70 with the new batteries also accepts battery swapping, which means Dongfeng must have many solid-state battery packs available for its tests. The irony here is that the E70 is based on an old vehicle, the Fengshen A60, which was presented in 2011. We have no idea if these 50 prototypes also have the ProteanDrive motors on each wheel. Apparently, that’s not the case: the E70 AWD has different wheels, which reveal the electric motors behind them.
The new partnership aims to put something that Dongfeng is developing as “Any-Drive” for sale as soon as possible. According to a document that the Chinese company disclosed in 2018, it means that the vehicle can run with any of its four wheels depending on the conditions. Not only rear-wheel-drive, front-wheel-drive, or all-wheel-drive, but also with left-wheel-drive, right-wheel-drive, or even with opposite wheels (the front left and the rear right wheels, for example).
As usual, the main issue people see with in-wheel motors is unsprung mass. Protean published a video on April 20, 2020, to dismiss that. Yet, the lack of vehicles with this solution shows it is not an easy problem to overcome. REE has found a really ingenious way to make it work: integrate the motor not to the wheel but to the vehicle structure. That makes it sprung mass with the hub motors' advantages in terms of weight saving and modularity.
On January 22, 2022, Dongfeng announced it would be the first vehicle to present solid-state batteries. Unfortunately, all the company has so far are 50 units of the E70 equipped with these cells. That makes them practically prototypes.
The E70 with the new batteries also accepts battery swapping, which means Dongfeng must have many solid-state battery packs available for its tests. The irony here is that the E70 is based on an old vehicle, the Fengshen A60, which was presented in 2011. We have no idea if these 50 prototypes also have the ProteanDrive motors on each wheel. Apparently, that’s not the case: the E70 AWD has different wheels, which reveal the electric motors behind them.
The new partnership aims to put something that Dongfeng is developing as “Any-Drive” for sale as soon as possible. According to a document that the Chinese company disclosed in 2018, it means that the vehicle can run with any of its four wheels depending on the conditions. Not only rear-wheel-drive, front-wheel-drive, or all-wheel-drive, but also with left-wheel-drive, right-wheel-drive, or even with opposite wheels (the front left and the rear right wheels, for example).
As usual, the main issue people see with in-wheel motors is unsprung mass. Protean published a video on April 20, 2020, to dismiss that. Yet, the lack of vehicles with this solution shows it is not an easy problem to overcome. REE has found a really ingenious way to make it work: integrate the motor not to the wheel but to the vehicle structure. That makes it sprung mass with the hub motors' advantages in terms of weight saving and modularity.
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