Is having independant drive to left and right wheels safe? What happens when one motor breaks as all things do, it will drive you into the crash barrier 70mph?

Unsprung weight?

Will this not make some crap handling cars?

Hardly.

Ferdinand Porsche was building cars with in-wheel motors at the beginning of the 20th century. His "System Mixt" comprised a set of batteries to drive the electrics and a petrol engine to recharge them on the run - reminiscent of anything? That ws in 1901...

One of the key components of making a car handle, and ride comfortably is lowering the unsprung weight to ensure the tyre stays in contact with the road as much as possible. I wonder how much mass this system adds to each wheel, and how it affects the ride and handling.

Quick course on some pitfalls of the French language:

La France refers to the country.

Le France refers to the ship of the same name (i.e. le navire France).

</pedantry>

The clever bit of this design is the fact that it includes suspension - thus lessening the impact on unsprung weight.

Their prototype had a unsprung weight of 77lb on the drive axles which compares well with at Renault Clio which comes in at 84lb

Nah wont go madly out fo control into a barrier !

even if only 3 wheels are still driving you should easily be able to control the car (if not please hold the steering wheel with hands(claw) )

and anyway they would easily stick the proggies into it to put power where and when u need it

As for french motors being all bad !!

Common What abou thte 2CV and DS

DS was well before its time

But agree about unsprung weight but from the picture it isnt clear as top wether the motors are mounted before the suspension or not

"Is having independant drive to left and right wheels safe? What happens when one motor breaks as all things do, it will drive you into the crash barrier 70mph?"

So you still use a non-vehicle form of transportation then? Perhaps horse and buggy? Motor vehicles have had independent drives to the left and right wheels for a long time. It's just been done via mechanical means of splitting the engine's torque instead of a motor on each wheel. How do you think your auto can corner on such a tight radius? Hint: it's by applying more "drive" to the outside wheel.

But since you're concerned, allow me to use your own question in relation to non-electric cars: "Is having a driveshift-and-differential-operated vehicle safe? What happens when an axle breaks as all things do, it will drive you into the crash barrier 70mph?" And yes, axles do break. Just ask my cousin who managed to snap the rear axle on his Jeep Wrangler.

If a drive axle breaks power to the ground is lost unless you have a limited slip differential. An open differential will simply spin the broken side twice as fast and not turn the good side at all. This is why vehicles with open diffs get stuck more easily. That said, with traction control being all the rage it hardly makes a difference any more, unless breaking an axle also breaks the traction control scheme of course.

Perhaps I should have been more clear in my post. My comment, which was in response to the first comment ("Safe!"), was an attempt to point out that the failure of one wheel to receive power in an electric "use separate in-wheel motors to drive each wheel independently" vehicle is no more dangerous than the failure of one wheel to receive power in today's "use a drivetrain and differentials to split the power from one engine to drive each wheel independently" vehicle.