Porsche made an in-wheel electrical motor in 1900

In-wheel motors at the moment are a much-discussed matter for efficiency electrical autos, however Ferdinand Porsche, the founding father of the Porsche engineering firm and father to Ferry Porsche, the founding father of the Porsche sports activities automobile model, labored on them over 100 years in the past.

On the flip of the twentieth century, electrical vehicles gave inside combustion a run for its cash, and Ferdinand Porsche was experimenting with each applied sciences. On Apr. 14, 1900, an EV that the 24-year-old Porsche helped develop was unveiled on the Paris World’s Honest—and notably that includes in-wheel hub motors.

Having beforehand designed an electrical automobile in 1898, Porsche designed motors to be built-in with the entrance wheel hubs of a automobile constructed by the Austrian agency of Jacob Lohner & Co. in a interval of solely 10 weeks. The electrical motors every generated 2.4 hp, which acquired the automobile, known as a Lohner-Porsche, as much as a prime pace of 19.8 mph. The Lohner Porsche additionally featured four-wheel braking—a rarity on the time.

Working with Ludwig Lohner, Porsche continued improvement of hub motors, creating three sizes with outputs as much as 11.8 hp. Meant to be used in vehicles and buses in addition to passenger vehicles, these motors have been powered by lead-acid batteries that offered a claimed 31 miles of vary.

Porsche additionally designed an all-wheel-drive electrical race automobile named La Toujours Contente (French for “the one who’s all the time pleased”), with one 13.8-hp motor powering every wheel. However the engineer’s in-wheel motors noticed probably the most use in a hybrid.

The Lohner-Porsche Semper Vivus (Latin for “all the time alive”) mixed hub motors with a gasoline engine to increase vary and deal with lack of charging infrastructure (two issues EV drivers of in the present day are nonetheless accustomed to). Porsche claims that about 300 autos utilizing this powertrain have been constructed, together with 40 for the Viennese hearth division, in addition to some taxis.

Lohner-Porsche Semper Vivus hybrid

In-wheel motors at the moment are discovering their approach into fashionable autos—regularly. In 2023, Chinese language automaker Dongfeng claimed to have the primary production-ready passenger automobile with in-wheel motors, and previous to that they’d been slated to be used within the Lightyear 0 and Lordstown Endurance pickup that did not fairly make it to full-scale manufacturing, in addition to the NEVS Emily GT prototype.

Ferrari has additionally patented an in-wheel motor design, whereas Lexus in 2019 mentioned it could pursue in-wheel motors for future EVs. A more moderen patent submitting from guardian Toyota seems to again that up.