Is This How Faraday Future Is About To 'Reinvent The Wheel'?
Remember that mad Batmobile-like electric vehicle concept Faraday Future revealed earlier this year? The Chinese-backed Californian company has just revealed a sneak peek of its first production model, and unsurprisingly, it’s nothing like it.
Yep, as much as we’d love a 1000bhp EV supercar, Faraday seems to be sensibly chasing after the Tesla Model X with an SUV. But what’s more interesting about the above teaser is the whole ‘re-inventing the wheel’ aspect. So what is FF up to?
Judging by a patent discovered by The Truth About Cars entitled “System and Method for Improving Acceleration Performance of an Electric Vehicle,” it’s all about in-wheel motors.
The patent details several different motor concepts, one of which that proposes that the “motor may be built into a wheel such that the wheel may rotate co-axially with a rotor of the motor.” And if this is the technology that Faraday has instilled in its new SUV, the ‘reinvent the wheel’ thing isn’t far from the mark - in-motor technology has only ever appeared on concepts and prototypes when it comes to cars.
The patent also shows that like Tesla, Faraday Future is thinking about performance. There’s talk of a Ludicrous-style driving mode which “may also be referred to as, for example, a sports mode, a turbo mode, an exhilarating mode, a thrilling mode, a rocket mode.”
I don’t know about you, but ‘rocket mode’ gets my vote…
Growing up on a diet of World Rally Championship highlights and lengthy Gran Turismo 2 sessions, a life in cars was as good as inevitable for Matt.
Comments
I think its kind of hard to reinvent somthing as basic as this. Otherwise It might not be a wheel. You could call it a dheel or pheel but it ain’t a wheel.
If it is round and it is meant to move something, I would most likely still call it a wheel. They are simply just advertisingplacemnt of the motor. Not reinventing it. That’s called innovating by the way.
If its apple who woud reinvent the wheell it woud be bluetooth connected
Couple of issues as I see it if each ‘wheel’ is essentially a motor with some rubber of the outside?
Well there is the problem of weight. Then weight distribution and rotational dynamics. The strength of the ‘wheel’. Tyre/adhesion tech will struggle to keep up with motor tech (MotoGP style)? Then there is cracking, flexing, kerbing to deal with? How long will it take to change the tyres? I imagine the motor will take an absolute beating on bumpy roads/speed bumps etc…
I can’t see the point in having this tech in place of using a diff and inboard motors that most cars will use in future? I suppose this technique will drum up some PR/Marketing interest and the shareholders will be pleased with that…
There’s a good reason everyone shied away from in-wheel motors, it’s terrible from a ride, handling and performance point of view, and the articulating HV cables and cooling loops are a nightmare fatigue-wise.
My dad has done work for faraday future about 2 weeks ago!
Everyone else is going into lightweight forged aluminum rims and even carbon fibre, while these guys want to add unnecessary weight to the wheels. Ride, performance efficiency, everything will take a step down to do this. Is there any positive aspect of this, other than the fact that no one else has done it?
Making a wheel with hub motor reduces transmission losses increasing range, not a bad thing if the chinese can make the weight low…the japanese have achieved speeds in excess of 350km/h with it.
That tiny thing is 80hp, more then adequate for standard cars and with modern technology could be made even smaller.
https://youtu.be/DGQQmqyvZiA?t=351
I bet you can’t say unsprung mass 5 times real fast.
Anyone seen that 5-stroke motor concept, where the spent exhaust gasses are passed onto another ‘low pressure cylinder’ to essentially get every last drop of power out of the combustion?
Unless you’re going to start using banks of capacitors instead of batteries, I can’t see electric cars ever taking off due to the limit on charge times. We’d be better off with swappable fuel cells or high-efficiency combustion engines than we would a rechargeable car.
My country has done a better job at designing a car (i guess)