Adding rear hub motors to a fwd gas powered vehicule ?

[Hillhater]

It seems you are trying to produce a typical “Hybrid”,… much like a Prius or such but much less capeable or sophisticated.
Your approach may well produce something unique and save some cost, but it wont be easy and may be more difficult than you think ( road legal). It is a route many before you have attempted ( even Ford ) and abandoned after much effort and time.
used Prius’s ( or similar ) have been around for many years now, and can be found cheap ( especially those with battery issues !) , and would seem to be a more realistic solution.

 

[Jeff23spl]

. If someone could pull it off, it would be huge, because for example in the State of California, there could be a mass-transfer of older gas-driving FWD cars to hybrid hub-drive cars. It could make millons, because the conversion is so easy. You just swap out the wheels and add the battery and wiring/controller.

you cannot just replace wheel because the hub would spin freely without pushing the car, you need to replace the whole hub assembly attached to suspension and the part would need to be specifically designed for each model of car.

 

[Jeff23spl]

It seems you are trying to produce a typical “Hybrid”,… much like a Prius or such but much less capeable or sophisticated.
Your approach may well produce something unique and save some cost, but it wont be easy and may be more difficult than you think ( road legal). It is a route many before you have attempted ( even Ford ) and abandoned after much effort and time.
used Prius’s ( or similar ) have been around for many years now, and can be found cheap ( especially those with battery issues !) , and would seem to be a more realistic solution.

I agree with you that it is easier to buy something already made, no doubt about it. and an old prius is getting cheaper these days but as a fan of the DIY hobby, i preffer to build it than buying it....It is not to save money since it would probably be more expensive to mod than buying a whole prius but i expect to have more fun in the project and driving it.

For road legal...i don't plan to have it checked. we dont have annual inspection here so i would just drive it plated as a factory ice. without using lane reserved to ev. I just checked what is involved to have a legal e-scooter plate (40mph limited) on a electric converted road bike project and it get crazy. Among everything, I need an official engeneer to sign my project, i may need high voltage protection loop even for just 72v and a bunch of outdated safety device like if i would be using an old golf cart serial motor that is contactor driven...

 

[Hillhater]

Well maybe if you are not too concerned with cost, you might check out these guys..

Elaphe Announces Production of World’s Highest-Performance In-Wheel Hub Motor - Elaphe

Elaphe announces start of low-volume series manufacturing of Elaphe L1500 in-wheel motor.

in-wheel.com