The Powertrain Of The Future: Four Electric Motors, One Nimble Car - Motrolix
Chances are, you’ve never seen a Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG Electric Drive in-the-flesh. Namely, the Mercedes SLS AMG ED drives each of its four wheels with a separate electric motor, each capable of turning at its own, independent speed. Because each wheel is controlled independently of the others, different rotational speeds and torque assignments can be doled out by a central controller, negating the need for any brake-based torque-vectoring, or electronic or mechanical... In fact, the geniuses at Mercedes-Benz and its AMG performance arm have made use of what they have dubbed “negative torque. ” That is to say, whenever warranted, the SLS ED’s electric motor controllers can send a force opposite the inside wheels’ direction of rotation to increase turn-in agility. True, that’s not unlike how brakes might function in a contemporary brake-based torque-vectoring system, but it’s much more elegant – and from what we can tell, effective. In 2013, Car and Driver compared the handling of the Mercedes SLS AMG ED to the agility of a ballerina. What’s more is that the folks at Mercedes-Benz implemented this drivetrain right , which is to say, without fitting the 100-pound electric motors to the wheel hubs. Source: motrolix.com
