Automakers are exploring many options for electrifying the type of vehicles that People cannot get sufficient of. By way of typical producer...
Automakers are exploring many options for electrifying the type of vehicles that People cannot get sufficient of. By way of typical producers, Ford is arguably out in entrance. Credit score the already obtainable Ford F-150 PowerBoost gasoline-electric hybrid pickup, in addition to the upcoming F-150 electrical. Heck, even Ram's eTorque "delicate hybrid" system is a fuel-saving step in the best route. Upstarts like Bollinger, Lordstown, Rivian, and now Canoo need a piece of the pie, too, however aren't reliant on "legacy" truck platforms. However for extra conventional pickups, like the type already operating round your city as work or life-style automobiles, Magna has an interim answer known as eBeam.
We're speaking about an software for vehicles with a standard ladder-frame chassis and reside rear axle. The eBeam drops proper in, in idea, using all the unique mounts, suspension, and so forth. However there would not be an enter for the driveshaft, because the eBeam is an built-in e-motor axle that is available in 120- and 250-kW energy ranges. Magna says one- and two-motor variations are in growth, with the two-motor model providing torque vectoring throughout the axle. The only-motor model presumably incorporates a differential, taking the place of a standard truck's "pumpkin."
What is the benefit of this over, say, growing a devoted skateboard chassis with impartial rear suspension, as newer opponents are doing? The reply is conventional truck capabilities: the journey top, payload, towing, and so forth that conventional vehicles present. And the way in which that the aftermarket (each for private automobiles, and say, for up-fitting industrial and leisure automobiles) interfaces with conventional truck suspension and chassis methods. Additionally, it needs to be stated, it does not require the engineering or manufacturing of a devoted chassis.
A leaf- or coil-sprung reside rear axle is a rugged, confirmed, and maybe most significantly, an economical setup, which is why gentle vehicles have caught with this setup for thus lengthy. For normal truck homeowners, it comes right down to what the truck can do, and what you are able to do with it. For fleet operators, it is an inexpensive, confirmed answer.
However fleet operators, specifically, are all the time amenable to decrease operating prices. An electrified eBeam rear axle guarantees, theoretically, much less upkeep with out being wildly divergent in different respects from comparable fleet automobiles. By leaving suspension and brake methods intact, towing and payload are additionally unaffected (however any extra automobile mass from batteries). Magna claims the mass is equal to a (heavy) reside axle, all different issues being equal—the tough equivalence is sort of actually because of the heavy utilization of light-weight aluminum within the eBeam axle.
These shopping for an eBeam-equipped truck (and it needs to be famous that Magna says there are a number of producers who're ) will uncover the massive benefit is that this expertise serves as a easy transitional step to getting extra hybrid and battery-electric powertrains into "regular" vehicles. There are few trade-offs from an engineering standpoint, and some life-style or workstyle changes wanted to make use of such a truck identical to you'd a standard live-axle setup.
Or course, an eBeam set up does not handle how energy would get to the rear axle. The producer would want to discover a place to mount batteries, energy inverters, cabling, and so forth. Some current electrified vehicles stow them underneath the rear seat or between the body rails. Likewise, the house in any other case occupied by a standard driveshaft can actually be utilized in an eBeam set up.
However it's early days but for the eBeam. We do not know any producer who's chosen the system for a truck—but. We must always notice that Magna has already developed entrance axle e-motor options, so a totally all-wheel-drive electrified pickup, utilizing a standard chassis and suspension may very well be achievable as an off-the-shelf answer. Time will inform which automakers, if any, carry this technique to a seller lot close to you.
https://www.motortrend.com/news/magna-ebeam-axle-ev-truck/
