On 2014-10-26 16:20:14 +0000, John Levine said:

The obvious approach would be to put motors in the wheels, like they
do on electric streetcars.

In the *wheels*? Never heard of that. They'd usually be on the bogie, surely?

But apparently motors are heavy, and that
would make the unsprung weight of the car undesirably high, so they'd
have to put the motors in the body, with fiddly universal joints to
connect them to the wheels.

No more fiddly than the same universal joints/CV joints required to
connect the internal combustion engine in a regular car to the wheels.

But unless they are a lot more fuel
efficient than current hybrids I wouldn't bother.

The gains are different - lower complexity as there is no traditional
gearbox, and a better ability to run electric-only for short periods
e.g. when in and around a city, where avoiding pollution at the point
of use is a key feature. Not necessarily raw MPG.

Do electric trolly buses have motors in the wheels like streetcars?

I'd expect body mounted and connected via a propshaft with a CV joint
on each end.

Neil
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Neil Williams
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