The wheelmotor is a 100 kW brushless DC electric motor integrated into a 26-inch car tire. It started as a hobby project with bicycle wheelmotors and tabletop demos. It is now an R&D project approaching commercialization.
It has been designed for high-volume manufacturing, ultimate reliability, and maintainability for repair (if necessary) in the field. That is, the tire can be changed on the road without disassembling the wheel from the chassis.
It has been dynamometer tested to 450 volts, producing 1,000 + Ft-Lbs of torque, and a maximum speed of over 100 mph. It comes with a matching controller. A price objective of $4,500 for the wheelmotor with tire and controller has been our goal. Road testing has demonstrated its capability to move a 5,000 LbM pickup truck, with one wheelmotor.
We invite you to take a look at the attached links for some development history. Three full size 26-inch wheelmotors have been prototyped to optimize the design and manufacturing processes. Tooling is in place to start production.