Zoom, Zoom

Interesting. The most significant thing is probably the Mitsubishi. They seem serious about bringing out a hybrid using the technology in a couple of years, and it's a new design that no-one's tried commercially yet.

They're calling the system "MIEV" (Motor In-Wheel Electric Vehicle). Instead of having axles and drive-train, 2 or 4 wheels have integral electric motors. They've been testing this system on battery EVs, and it would appear they intend to use it commercially first on a plug-in hybrid. The car will be a series hybrid, with the engine just acting as a generator providing no direct power to the wheels. They gain a great deal of flexibility in the design, as there's no limitations on the positioning of an engine, motor or transmission.

More information here: http://watthead.blogspot.com/2005/12/mitsu...rk-on-miev.html

This design obviously is extremely readily adaptable to pure EV conversion, more so than the Prius. Just chuck the engine and add more batteries.

 

Hi mehrenst,

That Yahoo link is apparently one of those "Push" technology things. Totally useless. Can't get to the "Pull" stuff we are interested in.