The Czech Electric car startup MW Motors has unveiled a lightweight all-electric vehicle equipped with wheel hub motors. It weighs only about 800 kg and should achieve a respectable range despite a small battery.
April 17, 2018, 7:43 am,
Andreas Donath
Electric sports car Luka
(Image: MV Motors)
MW Motors has presented with the Luka a purely electrically powered coupe in retro design. The company uses wheel hub motors. Although this concept is not new in principle, it is currently not used by car manufacturers. The vehicle is equipped with four engines in the wheels, each delivering 12.5 kW with a total output of approximately 50 kW (66 hp).
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The battery pack of the coupe is relatively small with 21.9 kWh, but according to MW Motors is sufficient for up to 320 km range, where it was not specified, according to which standard the range was measured. The vehicle is unusually light for an 815 kg electric car, even if it is a compact two-seater with 4,050 × 1,620 × 1,220 mm.
MW Motors plans to launch the vehicle for a starting price of around € 30,000. This seems unusually low. A release date has not yet been mentioned.
Although wheel hub motors make sense for the weight distribution of the vehicle and provide a low center of gravity, in accidents, the wheels are often damaged, which could cost a lot if there are also the engines there.
Porsche already used wheel hub motors on its first hybrid vehicle. Of the Semper Vivus is around 118 years old and a construction by Ferdinand Porsche. In this vehicle, two generators coupled with gasoline engines form a charging unit that simultaneously powers hub motors and batteries.