Formula E technology moves to the mainstream
Schaeffler has been active in the world’s first electric racing series ABB FIA Formula E since the first season. The electric racing series is an ideal test laboratory for the German supplier for the development of electric mobility technologies.
The close-to-production development relevance of this concept vehicle “Schaeffler 4ePerformance”, in which knowledge of comprehensive system understanding, drive, software and battery management is directly applied to all development areas, is particularly reflected in this concept vehicle: In “Schaeffler 4ePerformance”, the respective competence areas of Schaeffler Motorsport, the Schaeffler E-Mobility business unit and the subsidiaries Schaeffler Engineering and Compact Dynamics worked closely together, supplemented by the complete vehicle competence of ABT Sportsline. The realization of the project goes back to a joint idea of Lucas di Grassi and Prof. Peter Gutzmer with the aim of learning the maximum from Formula E for the series.
The 4ePerformance is powered by four 220 kW Formula E drives from the ABT Schaeffler FE01 racing car. A total electric drive power of up to 880 kW (approx. 1,200 hp) is available, which accelerates the concept glider from 0-200 km/h in less than 7 seconds. Each individual engine is directly connected to a wheel by means of a spur gear. Two motors share a gearbox housing and thus form an electric “twin axis”. This architecture enables wheel-selective control of drive torques (torque vectoring). The energy required for this comes from two batteries with a total capacity of 64 kWh.
“The free scaling of the drive power makes the vehicle a mobile testing laboratory for Schaeffler. We are currently testing and developing our software-based vehicle dynamics control system based on physical vehicle and tire modelling,” says Simon Opel, Head of Special Projects Motorsport at Schaeffler.
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