Automotive supplier Continental and Munich-based start-up DeepDrive have founded a joint venture to develop an innovative wheel hub drive with an integrated brake. The aim is to meet the challenges of weight, costs, resource-saving use of materials, and installation space requirements in the design of drives for current electric vehicles.
Working as central drive and wheel hub drive
The spin-off from the Technical University of Munich is contributing its expertise in the development of efficient electric motors, while Continental brings its many years of experience in the manufacture of braking systems and the industrialization of new technologies. The joint project aims to advance electric mobility through the development of a dual-rotor motor that can work as a central drive and wheel hub drive. By combining the drive and brake units, the long-term goal of the partnership is to develop a “corner module”.
Reduction of copper, lamination stack, and magnet mass
The DeepDrive electric motor, together with Continental’s brake components, is housed directly in the wheel hub of the vehicle and also has an advantage over conventional motors due to its compactness. The structure of the motor with one rotor arranged inside and one outside the stator also reduces the amount of copper, lamination stack, and magnetic mass required to generate the torque, making the drive’s structure lighter and reducing the amount of material required. The torque generated by the interaction of the I-pin-flat-wire-conductor stator winding with the two rotors is bundled via a wheel hub unit and transmitted to the wheel.
https://www.continental.com/de/presse/pressemitteilungen/20231005-deepdrive/
