Ford Fiesta eWheelDrive gets wheel hub electric motors

The Ford Fiesta eWheelDrive – a driveable research vehicle built by Ford and German specialists Schaeffler – may be a regular supermini in size, but it points towards a potential future EV which is much more compact and very manoeuvrable.

Ford has taken a regular Fiesta and dumped its powertrain, replacing it with a battery bank where the engine would be and fitted a pair of in-hub electric motors on the rear wheels. But the plan is to build new cars with the batteries under the floor which frees up the space under the bonnet which can then be all but removed to create a very compact urban car that still has space for four.

Not only that, but putting the motors in the wheel hubs opens up the possibility of a car that could spin its wheels sideways and power you in to a parallel parking space much smaller than you could normally squeeze in to.

Pim van der Jagt, Ford’s director of engineering and research in Europe, said:

This is an exciting project to work on with Schaeffler because it potentially opens new options for the development of zero emission vehicles with very efficient packaging and exceptional manoeuvrability.

Looking forward, we have the opportunity to scope out the vehicle’s capabilities and how we might overcome some of the challenges presented by implementing the technology.

Schaeffler instigated the development of the eWheeDrive Fiesta, but Ford where keen to be involved as it could help produce much smaller city cars in the future, a future which ‘experts’ claim will see twice as many people living in congested cities by 2050 with all the transport and pollution problems that will bring.

The next step is for Ford to team up with Schaeffler, Continental, RWTH Aachen and the University of Applied Sciences, Regensburg, in the appallingly named MEHREN (Multimotor Electric Vehicle with Highest Room and Energy Efficiency) project to develop a pair of new EVs by 2015 with an increase in the integration of electric motors.

Toys, local delivery vehicles and small commuter cars are where EVs should be at. It’s good to see car makers finally taking the pragmatic route.

By Cars UK