Increasing unsprung weight by putting the motors in the wheels will reduce the ride quality quite a bit. You can make lower RPM electric motors that can do dir

Increasing unsprung weight by putting the motors in the wheels will reduce the ride quality quite a bit. You can make lower RPM electric motors that can do direct drive but they will loose efficiency, power and speed. At some point gears became better to reduce the RPM, even after accounting for gear loses. Even current electric cars really need 2-3 gears for maximum performance and efficiency, but they can get away with fixed gears which greatly simplifies things. One of the interesting things about the 4 wheel drive Tesla’s is that the 2 motor/gear assemblies are optimized for different speed bands so they can have the benefit of both without needing to shift gears, they just shift power from one motor to the other. In wheel motors generally will only be done for low speed applications where a suspension is optional, just like airless and omnidirectional tires.