Everyone is a manufacturer!
Manufacturer of In-Wheel Electric Car Motors goes to China.
Illustration Protean Electric Tucked In Protean's electric motors in the wheels would be more powerful than others and save space under the hood.
Innovative engine wheels for electric vehicles may get his first test in the smoggy streets, choking the flow of Beijing and could lead to a wave of powerful electric cars and radically redesigned electrical Protean an automotive startup headquartered in Auburn Hills Michigan is currently scouting sites for a manufacturing center in China and said the assembly line will be operational before the end of the year, the company expects its first customers to be Chinese automakers, which use the engine in their plug -in hybrid or pure electric cars.
Andrew Whitehead, director of strategic alliances Protean, said China is becoming a test bed for electric vehicle technology, thanks to the government strong support The way we see it, the main driver of electric and hybrid technology at present are government emission standards, said Whitehead regulations in China are certainly as strict as in Europe and North America, but there seems to be more political will to help the industry meet standards in China than in the rest of the world air pollution in the capital of China aA reached a point of crisis, and the manufacturers and car buyers in China can now take advantage of government incentives to replace polluting cars cleaner electric vehicles, said Whitehead.
While a typical EV has a central engine under the hood that sends power down the driveshaft to the axle, the Protean system generates energy directly in small engines nestled inside the wheels without loss energy in transmission, Protean says its engines can provide significant efficiency gains over these gearless, direct drive motors can each generate an impressive 1000 Newton meters 738 foot-pounds of torque each by comparison, engine of the electric Chevrolet Volt generates 370 Nm 273 lb-ft Protean says that provide much torque to individual wheels provides superior handling and performance of the vehicles power electronics and control, including power inverters that change of the AC to DC battery that powers the motor, are all huddled in space of the wheel.
Whitehead said motor 34 kg is suitable for plug-in hybrid, as the Chevy Volt and for all electric vehicles; Standard hybrids such as the Prius don t rely on their electric motors for propulsion enough to make it profitable wheel motors A typical passenger car would have two of these engines, while a heavy or high-performance vehicle could have a motor in each of its wheels.
The concept of the motor-wheel is hardly new; in fact, Ferdinand Porsche unveiled a car using these engines in 1900. However, the first versions couldn t provide much power or torque in the confined space of the wheel and also could not resist t vibration, heat, dust and water met as car drives on road Whitehead said each component of the electrical system Protean was designed with this hostile environment in mind, and that the system meets the mass market requirements of industry.
Everyone is convinced Although the benefits of efficiency and torque of wheel motors are important, so are costs, says Sheldon Williamson an associate professor of electrical engineering at Concordia University in Montreal, studying electric motor leads the point of view of research, we're very optimistic, he said, but economically, it doesn t make sense for commercial vehicles currently Williamson said that coordination of wheel motors require control systems complex, and predicts it will take five to 10 years for the technology to be competitive.
Whitehead acknowledges that vehicles using the Protean motors would require new control software, but said that somehow the wheel system makes it simpler control in a classic car, a driver steps on the accelerator and sends a command via an electronic control unit ECU to the engine, telling it to produce torque that is distributed to the wheels by means of mechanical systems in a car Protean power, the ECU can provide torque to where you want in the vehicle without these complex mechanical systems, Whitehead said that this control could facilitate individualized distribution of power to each wheel, a technology called torque vectoring, which was the pioneer in race cars and has recently made its way into all wheels motor vehicles.
The manufacturer, FAW-Volkswagen Automotive Company a joint venture between a Chinese auto company, and Volkswagen, apparently isn t afraid challenges and is in partnership with Protean Electric on a demonstration vehicle displacement motors to the wheels as open space in the car and allows great design flexibility, which could lead to new concept cars.
The Chinese government has set a goal of getting 500,000 new energy vehicles on the road by 2015 and 5 million by 2020, according to a report by the nonprofit Center for Automotive Research CAR Several cities, including Beijing, offering electric vehicle subsidies and also allow buyers of electric vehicles to jump lotteries for license plates, that cities use to keep the car market booming in check but Qiang Hong researcher Senior scientist with the cAR and co-author of the report, says these incentives haven t been enough to create a successful EV market in Beijing, if you want to buy an electric vehicle, you can immediately get a license plate, it is said But it even with that, consumers do not choose to Hong said that the lack of EV charging infrastructure is an obstacle to consum ator acceptance.
Yet, the electric Protean management believes that Chinese automakers are ready to make R & D investments needed to create this EV Chinese domestic automobile brands market struggling to compete with foreign brands, and Whitehead said the EV innovative technology can give them an internal combustion technology advantage, they have a century of industrial development to catch up, says Whitehead with electric vehicles, they can catch up and overtake.
Manufacturer of Electric Car Motors will InWheel China IEEE Spectrum, manufacturer, electric motors.