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How The Koenigsegg Regera Hits 248 MPH Without A Gearbox (2015)
- iwiririwo 8y ago400 km/h
- zepolen 8y agoHey at last, maybe in my lifetime I'll see the motor per wheel AWD design I've been fathoming for the past ten years.
- chriscappuccio 8y agothis design is much cooler
- cgio 8y agoYes, I've been imagining this too since 25 years ago now, also thinking how it would not need turning wheels, just power differential like paddling a boat. Not sure if this part can be done though or if it would break under the pressure... I should have studied engineering to find out.
- baybal2 8y agoChinese lsevs do exactly that. One banal BLDC for each wheel, but more often just two
- zepolen 8y agoNo steering wheel...that is an interesting idea, I don't think pressure would be a problem, but sensitivity might be.
- EmbarrassedFuel 8y agoThis is how tanks steer! And also (to some extent) why using them on roads ruins the roads. If you tried in a traditionally wheeled car then all of the drive shafts would snap though!
- ddalex 8y agoI used to think that the treads actually ruin the road because it changes to contact surface on which you apply the power differential from a line (on a tire) to a rectangle(the tread), i.e. it tries to rotate a flat surface which can't be rotated, so somethings got to give. Arguably a tire wouldn't have the same problem.
- MertsA 8y agoNo turning wheels means no parallel parking. Zero turning radius would be cool, but even with complete differential steering that would scrub the tires a bit much. I don't think you could practically remove steering tires entirely. I think you're still stuck with a rack and pinion, ball joints, tie rods, strut bearings, etc so even with AWD with independent electric motors on all wheels differential steering isn't really that useful. On a performance car, it'll help with handling around turns. I don't see that becoming commonplace on average cars because of the added cost.
- chrisbennet 8y agoFun fact: The Lohner-Porsche had a gas motor and 4 electric motors; one in each in wheel in 1900.
- zepolen 8y agoCool but not the system I'm thinking of: A complete real time tweaking of per wheel outputs based on live slip/velocity/momentum for perfect AWD.
- tmrmn 8y agoAFAIK the Mercedes SLS Electric Drive did that in 2013 https://media.daimler.com/marsMediaSite/en/instance/ko.xhtml?oid=9904727 https://media.daimler.com/marsMediaSite/en/instance/ko.xhtml...
- EmbarrassedFuel 8y agoIn addition to the sls this idea is deployed to some extent in IC cars as well: electronic limited slip differentials can send continuously varying torque to each wheel, see the Porsche 918 spyder (combo electric and IC) or the Nissan GT-R which has a famously odd driving characteristic as a result of the computer controlled torque vectoring.
- kingkongjaffa 8y agoFormula Student Cars have had this for years, check out TU Delft Formula Student Electric vehicle. Full AWD Torque vectoring.
- rodgerd 8y agoYour wish is granted: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=718&v=qeXZs_XAmME https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=718&v=qeXZs_XAmM...
- zepolen 8y agoWoah! Looks like it is. https://doubleapex.co.za/schaeffler-audi-4e-performance-concept/ https://doubleapex.co.za/schaeffler-audi-4e-performance-conc...
- aasasd 8y agoAfaik big trucks had that for quite some time now.
- oldboyFX 8y agoA Croatian company built two fully electric hypercars with 1 motor per wheel and a torque vectoring system: Rimac Concept One (the old model): - Acceleration: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eT7KKxoAvvk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eT7KKxoAvvk - Presentation at Stanford: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1FsrgJ66wUw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1FsrgJ66wUw Rimac Concept Two (the new model, they plan to build ~150 of them): - Geneva motors show: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XvjvYzzBh-k https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XvjvYzzBh-k - Company website: http://www.rimac-automobili.com/en/ http://www.rimac-automobili.com/en/
- davidrm 8y agoWe, Rimac, are also supplying Koenigsegg with the battery packs for Regera, feel free to AMA, hopefully I'll be able and allowed to answer :)
- wil421 8y agoWhy not let the differential(s) distribute the power? I’m sure one or two larger motors is better than 4 small ones. I would like to see a serious off-road EV.
- bane 8y agoThe article mentions it, but this is very similar to the setup in the Honda Accord Hybrids. Many spec sheets list them as "CVT" or "e-CVT" but those are all wrong -- there's no normal or CVT transmission at all. Instead the car is motivated by an electric motor that can close a clutch plate (in the Koenigsegg it's a hydraulic system probably to handle the greater HP and torque) and engage the ICE engine. When the ICE isn't being used to help out the electric motor it runs basically whenever it wants to and charges the batteries. This review from 2014 has a great explanation: https://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/2014/02/review-2014-honda-accord-hybrid-with-video/ https://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/2014/02/review-2014-honda-...
- m_mueller 8y agoA prius works in the same way, correct? In some ways this is a simpler system than conventional ICE-only drivetrains, I think this should have been pushed downmarket even faster than it has been. For people without the ability to charge (e.g. in Switzerland the vast majority lives in rentals without charging ports in the garage) this seems like the best solution so far.
- pjc50 8y agoThe Prius system is actually much more complicated involving a set of planetary gears to couple torque in and out of the drivetrain. The Koenigsegg system doesn't use the ICE below 30mph (because that would stall the engine at its fixed ratio) where the Prius can. A modified Koenigsegg with ratios adjusted for cruise at the local speed limit (and a lot less power!) sounds like it would work quite well.
- ansible 8y agoFor people interested in how the Toyota Hybrid Synergy Drive works, Weber Auto has a series of videos explaining it in detail: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRSQEgLk_2M&index=40&list=PLIn3FrDiB1lwNlNc1FhlzmMdTJ3PWw9fc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRSQEgLk_2M&index=40&list=PL...
- mywittyname 8y ago
- bluetomcat 8y agoTLDR: At low speeds, such a car is basically an EV with a petrol power generator and some power control circuitry which chooses to alternate between charging the battery or powering the electric motor directly. Under heavy acceleration and after a certain speed threshold (enough for the petrol engine to utilise the fixed final drive ratio), a clutch is engaged and then mechanical power is sent directly to the motor, then to the wheels.
- C1sc0cat 8y agoIts more like an ICE with electric drive just like some tanks have - the Tiger I comes to mind.
- sandworm101 8y agoI want to see the dyno chart. Either there are some serious power spikes/valleys with this setup, or they are nerfing (ie reducing) power at various points to smooth things. There is no way direct-drive IC engine makes anywhere near similar power at 100kph as at 200 (double the rmp). This may be fast, but a transmission would make it much faster. (A modern trans, at this power/price, would only be 200lbs at most. Less than carrying a passenger.)
- bagels 8y agoWhy add 200 lbs to a performance car? You may reduce acceleration rates (including braking and cornering), which is kind of the point in a car like this.
- acct1771 8y agoTo express it in simple terms, sometimes you run out of traction before you run out of engine to propel additional weight.
- bluetomcat 8y agoThe clutch is a hydraulic coupling, meaning that it acts pretty much like a torque converter. They claim that it stays "locked" most of the time (at constant speed), but the amount of slippage during heavy acceleration must be considerable. Looks like far from an ideal setup in terms of drivetrain efficiency.
- arghwhat 8y agoLocked means a regular, slip-free friction clutch housed inside the torque converter. Unless that clutch slips (which would be a mechanical failure), then there will be no slippage during heavy acceleration. The torque converter is most likely to handle a bit of slippage at low speeds, or just to provide a smoother activation than slamming a clutch. It's also supposedly a low-slip converter, unlike the normal "comfort" type.
- 8y ago
- brian-armstrong 8y agoThere's also a fantastic video where Jay Leno asks Christian Koenigsegg himself about this transmission and the 7 speed racing transmission https://youtu.be/4jhB9Yx0hyY https://youtu.be/4jhB9Yx0hyY
- aasasd 8y agoThat's all cool and good, but now I wanna know how you use something hydraulic for a clutch.
- KozmoNau7 8y agoIt's a torque converter, like on a conventional automatic gearbox. Just obviously built to handle significantly more power and better cooled to handle the large amount of slipping required for low-speed driving.
- dsfyu404ed 8y agoIt doesn't actually take much of a torque converter to handle 1000+hp. A stock style converter from a C6 or TH400 (half century old designs) should do the trick as long as you can cool them. Having a lockup converter that can deal with a 1000+hp is a whole different story.
- ehnto 8y agoSome kind of resistance on the flow of the hydraulic medium perhaps? Like putting a paddle wheel into a whirlpool but probably more sophisticated...
- fsloth 8y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fluid_coupling https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fluid_coupling
- aasasd 8y agoThanks! The TLDR seems to be that there's an input turbine and an output turbine. (I probably should've seen that coming.) The modern replacement, torque converters, seem to be essentially the same but with some magical modification of fluid flow in the middle: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torque_converter https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torque_converter
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- maaark 8y ago>It also has a "battery drain mode." Basically, when you are ending your journey, you will tell the Regera where you will be parking the car, at home or a charging station. The Regera will then make sure that the battery is fully drained before it gets to the end point, which means it'll be ready to accept a charge. Very smart. It has a fully electric mode of about 22 miles. I thought this was the worst thing you could do to lithium cells?!
- pjc50 8y ago"Fully drained" for the system probably doesn't mean "fully drained" at the cell level, since (as you say) there is a point below which draining cells damages them. The reported "0%" line will be some way above that.
- maaark 8y agoOn second thoughts, I'm guessing that what this ACTUALLY does is make sure that the petrol engine doesn't waste fuel recharging the battery unnecessarily at the end of the trip when it's going to get plugged in.
- tim333 8y agoI like that idea - it means if you are doing less than 22 miles you can run it as a plug in hybrid and not use fuel. I used to have an old high performance sports and the fuel use for going down the shops etc was annoying.
- 7000skeletons 8y agoI think it's pretty telling as to what sort of person I am, that I initially read the title as "How the 1,500 Hit Point Koenigsegg Regara" rather than "How the 1,500 Horse Power Koenigsegg Regara".
- akuji1993 8y agoSame for me. Too many Pokemon, MMORPG and MOBA games in my life.
- innagadadavida 8y agoAnyone here follows rotary hybrids? Mazda apparently is working on one for 2020, but no sports car so far...
- mywittyname 8y agoI believe the rotary engine will be relegated to range-extending electricity generation for an otherwise pure EV in Mazda's setup. Much like the BMW i3 has a small generator option for longer range.