Conceivably, the electric suspension motor could recoup some energy by switching to gen mode and firming up the suspension, reducing vehicle dive on deceleration.

Assume that the motor area is about 100cm^2 (10x10) that would only be 1w/cm which, in the PC industry, is a very acceptable heat load that can accept passive air cooling with an aluminum heat sink. Cooling is a non issue except for in the case of regenerative braking.

I wouldn't worry too much about durability. If these motors are built as an AC induction design, shock won't be an issue. Also, if they are seal-less, as I'd expect them to be, particle intrusion would also be a non-issue.

The days of the ICE are numbered....

Very impressive indeed.

But, if I understand the pictures and the way the wheel assembly is mounted, as the wheel moves up and down there could be little to no camber changes. Also, from a practical view, what sort of bearing is used, as the traction motor is offset from the wheel centerline. I just cant make enough of a judgement off of the limited pictures shown here, as it is to be attached to the chassis.

Giving the engineers the benefit of the doubt, I am very impressed with the engineering. Considering that it is soon to be applied to a production vehicle, I am assuming that all the design challengeshave been worked out. Now if someone can design a retro kit to install two of these wheels on the back of my '97 Honda Civic, I will be set..........

Look at the Poulsen hybrid for your 97 Civic. The engineering is not as fancy, but it is almost ready to go.

Sounds like these would make it easy to hybridise existing designs by addind these to the rear wheels in a FWD car.

Then you could design a PHEV with a "stop/start/crawl" mode so you could run on electricity up to say 30-40 mph very easily, yet with a small (ish) [ 3KWh ? ] battery.

If you made the battery modular, you could trade E range for cost, weight and luggage space (or development time).

Could be what gets the EU from 130 gms/km to 95.

Its a clever design for sure, but i would be interested in learning what the un-sprung weight is. I'm convinced in wheel motors in general are the way to go though, ALL inboard mounted motors require a diff assembly, driveshafts, & cv joints. The space this would free up by not being there could be used for much improved crash protection for passengers.

Apparently, un-sprung weight is around 36kg.. slightly lighter than a conventional steel system. cool!!

Here is some more info about it:
http://www.motorauthority.com/michelins-active-wheel-technology-in-detail.html

Hello!
I'm confused. What is rotating ans which parts of the wheel are static? Is the grey spring in the same position (vertical) all the time?
Does traction motor rotate as well? It's not centered with a wheel as one would expect, so how the torque is transferred to the wheel itself? Thanks.

one cylinder variable compression direct injection spark assisted ICE gen set. Run on a high octane fuel like methane or methanol compression ratios of 19.5:1 can be run at 42% efficency. over a range of 60% of its power output. look up the epa study on port injected high compression methanol engines the results will make you cry. The test engine was a modified vw diesel to run on port injected methanol and ethanol neat as in 100% no petrol dilution to LOWER octane. The test engine beat the pants off the diesel in power and efficency as the OTTO cycle at high compression is just fundimentally more efficent. once thottle losses and knock are eliminated in this case they used cooled EGR to dilute the mixture for throttle control.

We'll see pretty soon, in the meantime my guess,

This unit incorporates a short travel pitch yaw , roll and camber and toe action (oscillator)that supplements a conventional suspension.
The electric - 'Re' -active aspect may then contain sensors within

It would provide supplementary suspension and trim enough to more than make up for weight penalty.
Effectively this would mean hub motors without weight penalty. Providing extra traction control advantages.

In some applications ie on smooth surfaces ie factory floor application skid steer should be viable and no extra suspension travel required.
Some comments refer to the torque split as related to traction (steering) control but my guess is that anything up to full skid steering would be viable.