Protean In-Wheel Electric Motor

So what's one problem with today's hybrids and electrics? Weight of the electronics and size of the components. There's also serviceability issues with these hybrids and electrics, only being serviceable by trained professionals or someone with a lot of time and knowledge on their hands.

Protean has an amazing, ingenious solution for this, they put the electric motor, IN the wheel.

Pretty cool huh? Now according to their website each in wheel motor can produce up to 100 horsepower and 735 lb-ft of torque. Yes, 735 Foot Pounds of Torque! These specs are peaked at 400 volts DC, which means you're not likely to get a long range off of juicing your motor with electricity. Instead opt for these motors on all four wheels and push 50-100 volts on each and get amazing range when you want it, or step it up to 400 volts and get power when you need to have fun. Each motor has an 85% regenerative braking energy regain according to their site. With fewer moving parts i'm not surprised at that kind of efficiency. The in wheel design also seems ideal for serviceability. Instead of taking the engine apart to get to hybrid components, just take the wheel off and it's all right there. 

One thing Protean brags is 'retrofitability', being easy to implement on newer vehicles or existing fleet. Care to turn your 200 hp car into a 600hp all wheel drive monster? As this motor uses the existing wheel hub, the existing drive axle can fit through the motor as well. You can see more of the drive-train on Protean's website. If this is the case, i'd be ready to retrofit this on any car, any day.

If Protean's motor is as good as they say it is, we may be seeing the horizon of a whole new direction in electric drives. However, some ideas can sound too good to be true. We will just have to wait and see what happens.