Hyundai Motor Firm and Kia Company have unveiled the Common Wheel Drive System — known as ‘Uni Wheel’ — at ‘Uni Wheel Tech Day’ in Seoul, Korea. This paradigm-shifting car drive system will revolutionize the design of future mobility units, the corporate mentioned in a press launch.
Uni Wheel is a functionally built-in wheel drive system that dramatically improves out there area inside an electrical car (EV) by transferring the primary drive system parts to the vacant area throughout the wheel hub. In doing so, Hyundai Motor and Kia have designed a very new construction for the drive system.
In inner combustion engine (ICE) automobiles energy is transmitted from the engine by way of the transmission and to the wheels by way of drive shafts and fixed velocity (CV) joints. In EVs, the engine and transmission are changed by a motor and discount gear, however the last technique of transmission to the wheels is identical, the corporate mentioned.
Uni Wheel opens new prospects and allows a flat-floor configuration by transferring an EV’s discount gear contained in the wheel hub, finding a compact particular person motor shut to every wheel, decreasing the size of the drive shafts.
The system frees up considerably extra inside area in contrast with typical drive methods, enabling future mobility merchandise optimized for numerous purposes, equivalent to Function Constructed Automobiles (PBVs).
“We’re happy to showcase progressive concepts that would grow to be recreation changers sooner or later mobility market,” mentioned Jongsool Park, Senior Fellow on the Institute of Superior Expertise Improvement of Hyundai Motor Group. “We are going to good the know-how in order that prospects can expertise mobility in a very totally different and new manner.”
Advancing future mobility by way of new know-how
Latest advances in electrification, autonomous driving and connectivity applied sciences are reworking mobility merchandise into dwelling areas. Hyundai Motor and Kia’s give attention to area utilization in future car architectures will additional increase buyer worth and supply homeowners with richer consumer experiences because of this.
Uni Wheel makes use of a particular planetary gear configuration consisting of a solar gear within the middle, 4 pinion gears on either side and a hoop gear surrounding this association. Energy generated by the motor is transmitted to the solar gear, which in flip engages the pinion gears to rotate the ring gear. That is linked to the wheel to drive the car.
Uni Wheel’s pinion gears are linked to one another to type two linkages, and this multi-link mechanism allows Uni Wheel’s multi-axis motion to permit a variety of suspension articulation.
A traditional drive system utilizing a daily CV joint suffers from a lower in effectivity and sturdiness because the angle of drive shaft deflection will increase when travelling over bumpy, undulating surfaces. Uni Wheel can transmit energy with nearly no change to effectivity no matter wheel motion, guaranteeing excessive sturdiness and experience consolation.
When mixed with digital air suspension that may regulate experience top in keeping with the driving state of affairs, this may be elevated to stabilize the car on tough roads, or decreased for high-speed driving to enhance energy and stability.
By transferring the discount gear to the wheel hub, Uni Wheel’s excessive discount ratio delivers a big torque output and permits for a extra compact electrical motor. With unbiased management of as much as 4 environment friendly electrical drive models, Uni Wheel additionally permits for unprecedented ranges of torque vectoring to spice up dynamic capability and ship excessive ranges of steering and driving stability.
Extra effectivity, extra inside area
The Uni Wheel idea frees up area inside a car that was beforehand unavailable to customers. By relocating many parts of the drive system to the wheel hub and downsizing the electrical motor with no affect on efficiency, the additional area made out there throughout the car physique could be utilized as extra cargo room, equivalent to a bigger trunk or a ‘frunk’.
It’s additionally doable to maneuver away from typical seating preparations designed across the driver, creating new inside layouts and designs for the period of absolutely autonomous driving. Using this area to enhance battery capability can even enhance driving vary, that means customers can obtain the vary of a big EV with out the bodily measurement of the car rising.
The developments Uni Wheel permits may even considerably enhance passenger area. EV batteries are conventionally situated low down in a car’s physique, which requires a raised experience top, usually decreasing passenger area by the amount of the battery. Nonetheless, Uni Wheel optimizes battery packaging, with the lack of passenger area minimized.
This might be a worthwhile function for PBVs, which want to maximise inside area by providing a low, flat-floor design. The flat-floor platform enabled by Uni Wheel permits for sturdy flexibility and scalability in relation to PBVs, enabling the design of assorted physique varieties relying on the supposed use case.
Uni Wheel is extremely versatile and simply adaptable to all sorts of EVs, together with common passenger and high-performance EVs, because the system can implement the identical powertrain and discount gear capabilities required for typical EVs.
Along with automobiles of assorted sizes, Uni Wheel can be utilized to different sorts of mobility units, equivalent to wheelchairs, bicycles and supply robots. Relying on the necessities of those totally different types of mobility, Uni Wheel could be scaled to work with wheel sizes as small as 4 inches and as giant as 25 inches or extra. As well as, Uni Wheel’s capability to maneuver the rotation axis of the wheel makes it doable to create types of private mobility that may climb stairs as easily as an escalator.
Hyundai Motor and Kia are repeatedly verifying the soundness, effectivity, and sturdiness of Uni Wheel by way of numerous exams to good its improvement and can proceed efforts to enhance its effectivity by adjusting the discount gear ratio, and upgrading the lubrication and cooling system.
Hyundai Motor and Kia have utilized for and registered eight patents associated to Uni Wheel in South Korea in addition to america and Europe.
