"Almost" hub motors

[Desertprep]

I believe this picture is of an r/c vehicle or some kind of toy. Can this idea be applied to real cars - shorten the half shafts of a front wheel drive car and connect the motor to the half shaft? or, if you can find a good deal on motors, do it to each of the 4 wheels of an awd or 4x4 car/truck? It eliminates the drive shaft, differential and transmission of the vehicle, found in most ICE's. It also eliminates the sprung weight issue found in hub motors. Is it reasonable?

 

[amberwolf]

There have been rock crawlers built this way already; probably still some posts around from a decade or more ago.

You could use any motor you choose that's applicable to your specific needs and conditions to do something like this.

Keep in mind that if there is no shiftable gearing between the motor and wheel, the motor system will need to be *capable* of much higher speeds than the system will be used at, to have sufficient torque at the full speed range for good acceleration / etc at every part of that range, and it will need to have sufficient power to create full torque for worst-case conditions (like startup on a hill with highest possible weight load, etc) and be able to do that repeatedly without overheating for whatever conditions you're designing the vehicle for.

 

[Chalo]

That seems like a good application for a portal axle gearbox.

 

[DaLanMan]

when I departed the Army, I took advantage of a few things and wandered off with a few HMMWV's and these were the original unit, same shiity 6cyl diesel that produced an underwhelming 150ish hp.. they sucked, but had potential. I was busily wasting it by parking all of them in Alabama at a friends place and moving to LA for a career with less jumping of of planes. Somewhere between 97 and '02 I got an offer on a pair of them, they were sold to some bright lads who then made them into hybrids, with hub motors. I was intrigued and before I got the chance to look into them, the dot-bomb fell, and I was out of money and they evidently were out of business. I have seen one of the finished ones they did make ripping down a highway in 'Bama doing a good 120 (a speed no respectable HMMWV could have ever made without it needing a parachute at the end.

Still intrigues me.. i want a full EV hummer.. so I can park at the cool kids spots at the grocery...

 

[Hillhater]

shorten the half shafts of a front wheel drive car and connect the motor to the half shaft?

That is basicly what the Nissan Leaf is !
but as AW said, you need a suitable motor(s) and controllers.