Toyota Prius is a typical example of a hybrid vehicle (photo taken from toyota web site)

Pure electric vehicles

Pure electric vehicles use batteries, capacitors or fuel cells or a hybrid combination of them, and thus present a giant leap for an automotive industry. This is an unstoppable evolution, favored and supported by all advanced countries. The main technical issues regarding further development are the lighter, more powerful, more efficient and cheaper propulsion systems, and new, more flexible designs. Unfortunately current solutions, that by some extent copy traditional propulsion architectures with gears and mechanical transmissions, do not use all the benefits offered by the transition to electric propulsions. Pure electric vehicles can be further improved!

2GetThere, an automoatically driven bus in Rotterdam airport

GEM, a typical battery driven small electric vehicle

Tesla Roadster - A fully electric sports car

DaimlerChrysler - Mercedes F-CELL vehicle

Direct drives

The direct drive is the most simple and effective of all propulsion architectures. In-wheel motors power all active wheels of the vehicle without and gears or mechanical transmissions. Fist direct drive system was implemented back in the year 1895 by Porsche, however at that time driving demands were far different then today. In more then a century the in-wheel technology has improved but only in recent years some of the newest in-wheel motors have the potential for use in electric vehicles. It will take additional innovations in the fields of designing the motor and industrialization for their use in the automotive industry, since cars are, from economic and technical view, the most demanding application. And this is the challenge we are working on!

General motors Opel Zafira DD vehicle

Lightning gt - 4WD direct drive car