By Philippe Crowe
Political winds have blown against some federal funding being approved for advanced-tech startups, and as it turns out, China is picking up the slack as a financier for electric vehicle companies originally based in the U.S.
A few companies have looked to this Asian country after their funding request was rejected by the U.S. Department of Energy – and some, according to Alysha Webb’s ChinaEV Blog, went straight to China for funding, without bothering to apply with the DOE.
One of these is Michigan-based Protean Electric Inc. which produces a versatile in-wheel motor for pure EVs or PHEVs that prompts CEO Bob Purcell to boldly say, “we are the fastest path to high volume application of hybrid systems in the world.”
Believing their business case was strong from the get-go, Purcell said Protean went directly to private investors.
Some of these, looking for proven – or at least well developed and engineered technologies – happened to be in China.
On July 9, Protean announced it had received $84 million in new funding from GSR Ventures, New Times Group, Oak Investment Partners and the city of Liyang, Jiangsu Province, China. This capital will be used to bring Protean’s breakthrough electric drive technology to production by establishing manufacturing facilities in Liyang.
This funding is led by GSR Ventures, a venture capital firm based in Beijing and Silicon Valley. They are joined by the New Times Group, a Liyang-based industrial group. Oak Investment Partners, Protean’s first venture investor, is also participating in this round of funding. The city of Liyang is partnering to provide prototype manufacturing support, with favorable industrial policy.
With the help of this infusion of cash, Protean Electric will begin prototype motor production early next year in China; volume production is expected in 2014, and indeed, as Webb notes, the Chinese offer more than just money, they offer a huge potential market.
“The general frame on all of this is you want to launch the technology in the market that has the most real demand potential,” Purcell said. “The Chinese government for some years now has expressed a very strong industry in moving to electric based technologies. I give the policy makers a lot of credit for passing policies to promote the major components inside of China.”
What those policymakers want is Protean Electric’s Protean Drive, a fully integrated, water-tight, in-wheel direct-drive motor that Protean developed and manufactures.
To prove the concept, the company has developed multiple demonstration vehicles, including a Ford F150 pick-up truck, Volvo C30, Vauxhall Vivaro cargo van, Guangzhou Automobile Company Trumpchi, and BRABUS full electric and hybrid vehicles, based on the Mercedes-Benz E-Class, and were featured at the 2011 Frankfurt Motor Show.
Features of Protean Electric’s in-wheel motors include:
• Fuel economy improvements up to 30 percent depending on battery size
• Highest torque density of any of today’s leading electric propulsion systems
• 81 kw (110 horsepower) and 800 Nm (590 pound-feet torque) in each motor
• Weight of only 31 kg (68 pounds) per motor
• Fits within the space of a conventional 18- to 24-inch road wheel
• Superior regenerative braking capabilities, which allow up to 85 percent of the available kinetic energy to be recovered during braking
If you watched Automotive Engineering’s video, you’ll see there are tradeoffs for a hefty 68-pound wheel weight on at least two, if not four wheels. The obvious downside is this is a whole lot of unsprung weight. The upside is this unsprung weight can be managed with proper suspension engineering – and, it allows performance tuners to do such things as engineer a car for four-wheel vectoring.
Another issue Webb brought up is the ever present threat of intellectual property loss by tech strong, cash weak Americans who think to saddle up with Chinese who will in time have full access to what could be kept as trade secrets.
To this, whether right or wrong, Dan Squilller, CEO of PowerGenix was quoted as saying “When you get married to somebody you don’t go into it expecting the person to cheat.”
Yes, but, cheat they may.
As for Proteans’s Purcell, he said he has had powertrain managerial experience in China for GM, and said the trick is partnering with quality associates who have a vested interest in protecting intellectual property also.
Yes, and there is risk here as well, no doubt, but then there’s that initial $84 million and huge upside potential …
And interestingly enough, while the Chinese are more motivated, better funded, and have the political will to welcome high-tech startups with cash and favor in their markets, they could offer a back-handed blessing to the U.S. in time.
In her article, Webb pointed out none of the Chinese-benefited companies she spoke with had been tested to the point of having high-volume production. As such, assuming Protean or another company so funded succeeds, U.S. firms can also buy their technology later, so by her reckoning China is actually doing the U.S. a favor by taking chances the U.S. government is now less than willing to.
On this question too, we shall see …
In any event, Protean seems to be keeping goals realistic. Purcell told Webb the company is aiming to produce 100,000 motors annually. When you consider each vehicle will incorporate between two and four of those in-wheel electric motors, one quickly understands Protean expects to take it step by step.
This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 31st, 2012 at 5:55 am and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
+2
Jul 31st, 2012 (6:57 am)Just one little short drive shaft and the unsprung weight problem is taken care of. Not to mention the need for a space consciously designed motor. But I guess this is for converting existing cars.
+4
Jul 31st, 2012 (7:48 am)Due to the stated wheel size, this is probably a great idea for busses and trucks which don’t have a high degree of need for differentials as would a more nimble car with shorter turning radius. They’ll have to determine a way to do a software-based differential. Maybe they can work with the Smith Electric truck company which is delivering electric-drive trucks now. Thousands of delivery trucks in some big cities are ripe for electric conversion or replacement. Their driving distance is moderately-short in some cases.
I had to chuckle yesterday. Picked up my son from his music lesson. What is out in front but another driver in a Prius who was sitting there with the engine idling while their A.C. was running. Ah, the Prius – saving gas at every turn but not while sitting.
+2
Jul 31st, 2012 (8:05 am)A pickup truck.
440hp
1560lb/ft
Awesome!
+6
Jul 31st, 2012 (8:47 am)This is an old idea.
“Lohner-Porsche electric car was powered by electric wheel motors in 1898.”
Older article, but lots of info on in-wheel motors. My concern would also be about a motor failure and locking up the wheel.
http://evworld.com/news.cfm?newsid=25224
+2
Jul 31st, 2012 (8:50 am)I finally saw another Volt while driving mine, but I don’t think they saw me. I had a nice ride in this morning. My car sent me a text saying it was fully charged. I got in and saw 40miles of range on the battery. Put it in “L” and said “Pandora” to listen to some music. When I parked, it showed I had traveled 9.1 miles and used 2.2Kwh. It also still showed 33 miles of range on the battery.
+2
Jul 31st, 2012 (9:31 am)This is a point in favor of the eAssist or “start-stop” system which shuts down the engine (no idle) while stationary. For many vehicle owners that live in cities (like me) that have average travel speeds less than 20 MPH and move in slow traffic with many stops, the eAssist vehicle is great but the Volt is superior to any other hybrid.
The article is for the powered wheel version of EVs, but for a regular passenger vehicle, a smaller and lighter powered wheel is more efficient, since for city travel you don’t need 440 HP. Two wheels at just 60 HP each can move a city vehicle very well, and can keep up with regular traffic at 65 MPH, because most of the electrical HP will be used to accelerate. The first car I drove was a 1968 Austin America with only a 50 HP FWD engine, yet I could maintain at 55 MPH on highways, but it was slow to accelerate.
Kdawg, if the electric motor is brushless, the only failure that can cause a lockup is a bearing failure, which can happen in ordinary wheels, too. A failed motor will just free-wheel and become a load for the other powered wheels. Maybe you didn’t play with battery-powered electric toy cars when you were a boy, and experienced what a failed motor or dead batteries would do. I did, and it was one of the many reasons I became an EE.
Raymond
Jul 31st, 2012 (9:47 am)Raymondjram,
I deal w/electric motors everyday (going to the plant to look at a 150HP one right now). I think it’s harder to seal these motors, esp when they are seeing much higher g-forces when in the wheel.
Jul 31st, 2012 (10:11 am)There are many different ways to do this. I like the idea of a wheel motor since there are way less moving parts (no CV joints etc.).
An F150 axel(2), diff and hubs(2) weighs lots more than 136 pounds. Heck, just the 9″ diff weighs that much. The brakes can weigh less as well since you can regen.
The other consideration is how strong a CV joint has to be to handle 390lb/ft! This is one reason why Leno converted his 1000hp ’69 Toronado to rear-wheel drive.
With 4-wheel independent (but computer controlled) drive trains, it’s possible to do some really cool stuff such as > 90degree wheel travel to ‘parallel park’. Wheel alignment and shocks/struts will be active component tweaks allowing fully optimization for each turn and bump.
Jul 31st, 2012 (10:15 am)If you are adding a drive shaft, you have no real need for a motor that fits in the envelope of a road wheel.
+2
Jul 31st, 2012 (10:39 am)When I picked up my daughter at the movies the other day, I pulled in and waited a few minutes. Looked up and saw a relatively famliar headlight/lower lights on the bumper. Another Volt – a V.J. color with Volt on the doors (a demo recently sold? Someone who wanted to keep the sticker?) Anyway – that was nice to accidentally notice a Volt also at the same parking lot who were in the movies. Just wish that theater had an EVSE to have them plug into. Theaters are perfect examples of 2-3 hour opportunity charging sites. Also a high traffic area with a good education potential of parents/kids seeing electric cars parked and charging (gives them a good idea of what the future holds for the kids).
Jul 31st, 2012 (10:55 am)When the motors are in the wheels they’re subjected to a lot of abuse. Interestingly enough Nissan has said they are considering in-wheel motors for the next generation of electric cars. I suspect GM will stay away because of the potential for failure.
YASA also makes very light weight motors with better power density than Protean but AFAIK they haven’t concentrated on the in-wheel implementation. http://www.yasamotors.com/
+3
Jul 31st, 2012 (11:17 am)I have several concerns about in-wheels, and most of them go away with a short shaft:
* Heat dissipation. When sealed against road grit, weather and shocks (and while sharing the space with a friction brake), how do you keep the things from overheating? It’s not like you can put in holes for air-cooling, or run a hose to a radiator!
). All this, and miniaturization too, will be much more expensive than a single-channel controller like the Volt’s.
* Vibration. Let’s run these over a pot-holed Northern highway in all weather and see how they work after a year or two.
* Unsprung weight (see above)
* Expense. The problem with a space consciously designed motor intended to survive being pounded to death is that it’s going to take a lot more ruggedness, engineering and general overbuilding than a motor of equivalent power not in a wheel. This ain’t gonna come cheap.
* Controller/Inverter. Don’t forget that each motor will need it’s own controller, or channel within a larger controller since each wheel will need an individual frequency for much of the time. Theirs is inside each wheel (see “Heat Dissipation”
And that’s a good thing.
+2
Jul 31st, 2012 (11:36 am)True; and I was amazed to see one of the theaters by me had 2 EV spots. At first I saw non-EV cars parked there, even with a sign “EV Cars Only”. They are 2 of the closest spots, so I can see why people want to park there.
+1
Jul 31st, 2012 (11:38 am)China = Money pile
ex: Canada : CALGARY—Oil and gas producer Nexen Inc. (TSX: NXY) has agreed to be acquired by China National Offshore Oil Company for $15.1 (U.S.) billion CASH.
they don’t spend for buying hummer ( even for 100million ) but they are securing the resources for next generation. Now VW is fighting for IP ( First Automotive Works, Volkswagen’s Chinese partner, is copying Golf and Polo transmissions and engines and installing them in its own vehicle, the German automaker alleges )
I am expecting cheap volt copies also soon
. People has to find some way to have domestic investor /investments and production than going to china. But i know , for some one who want to get money and run their company and money pile next to you is very irresistible.
+1
Jul 31st, 2012 (11:39 am)Can you imagine if you parked in a bad part of town and came back to this? The wheels are probably 1/2 the cost of the car.
Jul 31st, 2012 (12:24 pm)Glad you liked my blog but please give me credit higher up in the story next time. When you crib a quote from my blog please note that Purcell said that to me.
Best,
Alysha Webb
China-EV.org
+1
Jul 31st, 2012 (12:37 pm)GM investigated in wheel motors many years ago.. not sure what came of them… maybe cost? reliability?
It would seem a motor being bounced around and hit with road debris would be highly suseptable to damage… maybe not on the highways of Ca. but here in PA I would have to be a pretty tough motor.
Didn’t car makers go with alum wheels to save weight?
+3
Jul 31st, 2012 (12:38 pm)#14
I agree, but not gonna happen any time soon IMHO. +1 for the thought though.
What is it the Brits say, “____ you Jack, I’ve got mine”, or something like that.
Doesn’t the Bible say something about selling your birthright for a mess of pottage?
Sorry……………………….
Jul 31st, 2012 (12:41 pm)#17
Trust me pal, we’ve got plenty of killer potholes in our highly maintenance deferred highways in CA LOL. My son blew a tire and absolutely destroyed a wheel on his MINI driving down the 405 in west L.A.
Jul 31st, 2012 (12:46 pm)This idea may sound cool, but the unsprung weight will make i it unfeasible. The principal of it will doom the idea from becoming mainstream. Maybe with military vehicles, this could work. Time will tell.
Jul 31st, 2012 (1:08 pm)IMHO, if they dumbed down the power down to ~50HP per wheel, make it smaller for medium to small cars and engineered it to “just slap on , wire up and go”, that’s where the largest market space is. If they can do that and keep the price down then they can make billions.
It looks more like they are just going to OEM these and leave nothing for the existing billions of ICE cars. The Demo vehicles they have are just that, Demo and no other plans for a product “retrofit”.
But that’s jus my opinion.
/need Kahlua maaaannn……
Jul 31st, 2012 (1:10 pm)So I don’t get the concern about the unsprung weight thingy….lol
Isn’t all the additional weight from the hubmotor already AT the wheels/tires?
/my ignorance!!! blahahahahahaaaa! Seriously though, I dont getit.
Jul 31st, 2012 (1:12 pm)Hey!
I resemble that remark!!!
Jul 31st, 2012 (1:14 pm)steve,
“If you are adding a drive shaft, you have no real need for a motor that fits in the envelope of a road wheel.”
Well then it would be nice to have two motors that fits into the envelope of a differential.
Jul 31st, 2012 (2:24 pm)How long before cheap Chinese ripoffs of these motor begin appearing in these trucks?
http://jalopnik.com/5880837/chinese-automaker-builds-picture-perfect-copy-of-ford-f+150-pickup
Jul 31st, 2012 (2:32 pm)I’m confident that the durability and heat issues can be resolved. Seems like a far simpler engineering challenge than making today’s complex engines and transmissions work as well as they do.
As for more unsprung weight, it seem ironic that’s so denigrated, yet one consistent automotive design trend the last two decades has been to use larger and heavier wheels each year. My ’89 Beretta GT had 15s; my ’08 Mazdaspeed has 18s; now 20s are becoming common.
Jul 31st, 2012 (2:46 pm)Or a transaxle. Yes. You could take XYZ Motor’s front-drive engine/transaxle out, put the twin motor/controller module in, put a battery pack on top (replace the gas tank with another) and: Voila, the new XYZ Electric! Actually, two motors separated from each other would allow width adjustment over a wide range of platforms such that existing half-shafts could be used. I imagine putting the controller in between, but that wouldn’t necessarily have to be.
+1
Jul 31st, 2012 (3:01 pm)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unsprung_mass
In a ground vehicle with a suspension, the unsprung weight (or the unsprung mass) is the mass of the suspension, wheels or tracks (as applicable), and other components directly connected to them, rather than supported by the suspension. (The mass of the body and other components supported by the suspension is the sprung mass.) Unsprung weight includes the mass of components such as the wheel axles, wheel bearings, wheel hubs, tires, and a portion of the weight of driveshafts, springs, shock absorbers, and suspension links. Even if the vehicle’s brakes are mounted outboard (i.e., within the wheel), their weight is still considered part of the unsprung weight.
[edit]Effects of unsprung weight
The unsprung weight of a wheel controls a trade-off between a wheel’s bump-following ability and its vibration isolation. Bumps and surface imperfections in the road cause tire compression—which induces a force on the unsprung weight. The unsprung weight then responds to this force with movement of its own. The amount of movement, for short bumps, is inversely proportional to the weight – a lighter wheel which readily moves in response to road bumps will have more grip and more constant grip when tracking over an imperfect road. For this reason, lighter wheels are sought especially for high-performance applications. In contrast, a heavier wheel which moves less will not absorb as much vibration; the irregularities of the road surface will transfer to the cabin through the geometry of the suspension and hence ride quality and road noise are deteriorated. For longer bumps that the wheels follow, greater unsprung mass causes more energy to be absorbed by the wheels and makes the ride worse.
Pneumatic or elastic tires help by providing some springing for most of the (otherwise) unsprung mass, but the damping that can be included in the tires is limited by considerations of fuel economy and overheating. The shock absorbers, if any, damp the spring motion also and must be less stiff than would optimally damp the wheel bounce. So the wheels execute some vibrations after each bump before coming to rest. On dirt roads and perhaps on some softly paved roads, these motions form small bumps, known as corrugations, washboarding or “corduroy” because they resemble smaller versions of the bumps in roads made of logs. These cause sustained wheel bounce in subsequent vehicles, enlarging the bumps.
High unsprung weight also exacerbates wheel control issues under hard acceleration or braking. If the vehicle does not have adequate wheel location in the vertical plane (such as a rear-wheel drive car with Hotchkiss drive, a live axle supported by simple leaf springs), vertical forces exerted by acceleration or hard braking combined with high unsprung mass can lead to severe wheel hop, compromising traction and steering control.
As mentioned above, there is a positive effect of unsprung mass. High frequency road irregularities, such as the gravel in an asphalt or concrete road surface, are isolated from the body more completely because the tires and springs act as separate filter stages, with the unsprung weight tending to uncouple them. Likewise, sound and vibration isolation is improved (at the expense of handling), in production automobiles, by the use of rubber bushings between the frame and suspension, by any flexibility in the frame or body work, and by the flexibility of the seats.
[edit]Unsprung weight and vehicle design
Unsprung weight is largely a function of the design of a vehicle’s suspension and the materials used in the construction of suspension components. Beam axle suspensions, in which wheels on opposite sides are connected as a rigid unit, generally have greater unsprung weight than independent suspension systems, in which the wheels are suspended and allowed to move separately. Heavy components such as the differential can be made part of the sprung weight by connecting them directly to the body (as in a de Dion tube rear suspension). Lightweight materials, such as aluminum, plastic, carbon fiber, and/or hollow components can provide further weight reductions at the expense of greater cost and/or fragility.
Inboard brakes can significantly reduce unsprung weight, but put more load on half axles and (constant velocity) universal joints, and require space that may not be easily accommodated. If located next to a differential or transaxle, waste heat from the brakes may overheat the differential or vice versa, particularly in hard use, such as motor racing. They also make anti-dive suspension characteristics harder to achieve as the moment created by the act of braking is not reacted on the suspension arms. Jaguar’s patented independent rear suspension (IRS) further reduced unsprung weight by replacing the upper wishbone arms of the suspension with the drive shafts as well as mounting the brakes inboard in some versions.
Scooter-type motorcycles use an integrated engine-gearbox-final drive system that pivots as part of the rear suspension and hence is partly unsprung. This arrangement is linked to the use of quite small wheels, further impacting the reputation for road-holding.
Jul 31st, 2012 (3:15 pm)It would be cool to see one of these hub motors used in a motor-cycle. I did some searching, but only found some science experiments. I like the videos below. The guy is using a servo motor. You have a lot of control w/a servo motor and pretty constant torque.
http://youtu.be/iCu3_dVMERI
http://youtu.be/krK4E_hu6C4
+2
Jul 31st, 2012 (3:35 pm)Isn’t something like this being used on some airplanes now? I think I remember that they are using it to spin up the landing gear wheels before touchdown to prevent flat spotting the tires. And maybe also for taxiing so they can shut down the main engines and save fuel. Hybrid airliner?
Jul 31st, 2012 (4:00 pm)Let’s not miss the obvious, China’s sandbagging its 95% rare earth production unquestionably plays out. How nice to be able to build me-no-worry REE motors.
Anyways Alysha, your name and article are referenced five-six times in Philippe’s short posting. Isn’t calling this cribbing a bit strong?
Jul 31st, 2012 (4:35 pm)Streetlight,
What’s “cribbing”?
Jul 31st, 2012 (5:55 pm)Kent,
Hi Kent #32: #16
Jul 31st, 2012 (6:39 pm)Streetlight,
Sorry…I still don’t get it. What does “cribbing” mean?
Jul 31st, 2012 (6:58 pm)Thanks kdawg, I get it now…..lol
/you can teach an old dawg.
+1
Jul 31st, 2012 (7:46 pm)China bought up a lot of nameplate manufacturing in this country. The first order of business, “we bought this company to create jobs in China”. Hoover vacuum and Maytag both bought with plans to move all production to China except the external component shell. Start to make me wonder how a two party system here that can never get along is going to survive against the single-mindedness of “country first” China. I see “I love America” and flags on cars, routinely those same people have them made overseas. They can’t see the irony.
Jul 31st, 2012 (8:14 pm)America1st,
But the company that sells those flags makes more money than if they made them here. $.50 goes to China, $4.45 stays here in the US.