It’s a SAAB other than the badge. You’d have my full respect if you replace the badge. It would be a decent business opportunity to make a easy to install badge kit.
You heard the man: Saab had trouble, the Chinese company that bought them had troubles, and now whoever the new owners are pushed this out the door in less than a year. What could possibly go wrong?
I did some work for NEVS on their 9-3 based EV taxi for China. Great bunch of guys. Working REALLY hard with little resource. I am also a HUGE Saab fan, so i wish them all the best
Imagine being able to retrofit these wheels on your old Saab. NEVS would revolutionize the 2nd hand Saab market overnight and solve it's own recycling issue as a brand. I couldn't imagine anything more in the spirit of Saab like that.
There's so much potential in the brand itself. They should just own it and use the SAAB name instead of something new not much people know. Unless they use the NEVS as a test before reviving the SAAB name.
@@NaNoTech4Disaster EVs are already way more practical in terms of maintenance with fewer moving parts and no oil. And yes, lithium-based batteries are not at all suitable for cars, even though they are almost reaching parity in distance with ICEs. That will change with solid state batteries, though. By the way, your phrasing is hilarious. "Ever", "never", "in a 5 or 10 yrs to come" 🤣
I am just going to buy this and brand it as a SAAB myself with my own custom made stickers or something! This car is amazing....the SAAB spirit lives on ♥
@@my-days-co Because SAAB is a strong brand but comebacks are difficult. Many established car manufacturers are struggling with how to make a natural transition to the EV era but SAAB would have kind of a cleans slate in that sense. 🤔 Not too much baggage but still a strong brand as a bit of a quirky car maker. I also think they should make a proper retro redo of the 96. What BMW did with Mini. 🤩
I’m in love with the idea that SAAB could return. And to do it with the Emily GT and its in-wheel technology would be a coup I bet. And that front seat design! Absolute Saabism ❤️
Saab car brand won't return as disappointingly, the aeronautical division blocked the used of the Saab brand name. I hear you though. I'm a complete Saab nut and would love for Saab to return!!
As a former Saab 93 Turbo X, I'd love to see this make it to production. Saab were into electric way back in a wagon they had before EV was cool. Go Saab!!
I’ve had 4 SAAB’s in my time and I am only 47. Brilliant cars so I hope their engineers have not lost what they once had, before GM tried to put them in reins. I see so much potential for this system.
@@bassicallybassically3902 That's because you had a GM Saab. Basically a Vauxhall Vectra in a party frock! My 9-5 was also GM and was the worst of all the Saab's i had.
Yes yes yes !! Loved the two 9000s I had in the 90's and Saab's attention to detail, safety and performance in defiance of GM's mass market cost-cutting philosophy. Emily alludes to a Taycan but with the Saab looks and practicality ... this is the first EV I really would want to buy !! ❤
Yes, yes, yes! Been waiting for in wheel motors for years! Now give us small city cars with good range using the space freed up by not needing an in-body motor!
I remember Jeremy Clarkson on Top Gear testing a Mercedes-Benz SLS Gullwing with electric motors behind each wheel. Performance was unbelievable, with an astronomical price. It's great to see a company using this technology, looking at developing it for regular road cars. Hope the rest of the EV industry doesn't kill it off!
"" Hope the rest of the EV industry doesn't kill it off!" it's glaring how often technical ideas that seem Columbus's egg but ultimately don't survive, as it also relies on cost and scalability, subsequently get blamed on outside forces 'killing it off'. No, if it works then everybody will try to copy it, not kill it off. It if doesn't work, it will not survive by itself and doesn't need to be killed.
It just make sense to move the motors into the wheels - if they are compact and light enough - and use them for acceleration and breaking as unsprung mass, the latest Yasa motor got only 24kg, 5l volume and output 800NM. That's already useable. No I am not working with Mercedes, I am just excited what is already in mass production or will get into this year.
GM had the in-wheel motors with their 1st EV, but of course 'unsprung weight ' raised its ugly head. Now things are different, materials lighter and electric motors ridiculously compact so IT IS TIME!
Elimination of axles, brake systems, massive increases of passenger space and range, along with incredibly effective torque vectoring all adds up to the potential future of EV's. Brilliant! This is the engineering that can change the industry. Kudos to NEVS (I do wish they'd just call it a Saab).
Thank you Top Gear for finally making a video involving Protean. I’ve been waiting almost a decade for this and hopefully Mate Rimac watches this and likes it, there’s so much potential in hub wheel motors
Interested in the longevity of the engines since they're on the wheels. The wheels usually take and absorb alot of vibrations that we in the car don't feel because we are seperated by the suspension.
Great looking car, though a bit of a pity it doesnt have a Saab badge on it. I think this technology is seriously impressive and could be the future of electric motoring.
As a Saab nutjob, I was disappointed that when the Saab automotive industry died, Saab aeronautical took back the name and blocked the use of the Brand name to be used again!!
I feel like the Chinese overlords had a huge say in the design. It lacks the winter-friendly features of a real SAAB, and it doesn't look like it has a night panel mode. Those cute touch sensitive door handles don't work when they're covered in ice and you're wearing gloves.
@lovevideojuegos would you simply not just fill the engine bay and fuel tank area with batteries instead. Essentially replacing the bulk of the weight with batteries?
@@lovevideojuegos well... Could be an issue, with older motor technology, but would be a more straight forward conversion for ICE cars that are not built from the ground up to be EVs.
@@edentahilla9295 In a rwd car it would eliminate the diff, driveshafts, fuel tank g,box some engine space(allowing crumple zone) that empty space is now a battery pack
I have seen this car in Trollhattan recently, it is an absolute looker! Not a mule or rough prototype, but a zero-production, ready to ride BEV. Such a great interior to! Having seen the very innovative specifications, I am flabergasted this isn't in full scale production yet.
Well, considering they made this car 10 years ago (which is why they are using the pancake motors that hybrids used to sandwich between the transmission and ICE) and they have recently filed for bankruptcy...
NEVS shut down March 2023 and basically liquidated the company. In addition to laying off 95% of the company, NEVS also lost the rights to SAAB trademarks which unfortunately for you, this car was based upon. But fear not, we can at least pretend this car is real...
@@gcodori None of that means that it can't be resurrected. There are plenty and I do mean PLENTY of current companies that were entirely shut down and sold off at some point in their history or other. Just thinking of a few right now, and restricting myself to only vehicle manufacturers Audi MG Maserati Lamborghini Bugatti Triumph m/cycles Benelli m/cycles MV Agusta m/cycles BSA m/cycles And that is by no means a definitive list, it was just some of the companies that I can think of right now.
Рік тому+1
As a tank nerd the Porsche bit doesnt surprise me one bit. Because he also tried to incorporate hybrid drives into several of his tank designs, like the Ferdinand/Elefant tank destroyer (Formerly Porsche Tiger). This vehicle looks very good, extremly good for an early prototyp in fact. Nice to see that the future could be good looking and nice :)
The interesting thing about in-wheel EM, you can use it for aircraft to eliminate the need for towing vehicles, therefore minimising the possibility of runway incursion with airport equipment.
@@dru4670 it's not about the flying bits. It's about operational stuffs on land. For take off it won't be used, just for taxiing from apron to runway before departure.
When Saab disappeared I genuinely thought that would the last time we would see them altogether. Who would have thought that behind the scenes the techs and engineers were hard at work thinking about the future. I do hope that NEVS are able to bring this vehicle to the market but I do hope they put in some more buttons!
Never gonna happen...NEVS shut down March 2023 and basically liquidated the company. In addition to laying off 95% of the company, NEVS also lost the rights to SAAB trademarks.
It's so sad that this might not ever sell. NEVS has almost gone backrupt and they have fired pretty much everyone except the CEO. I hope some company buys this prodject, its currently a few companies looking at it. This looks like a amazing car, something that makes Saab live on.
What I find sad is that the engineers who strived to design and make this, were let go. I only hope they got jobs quickly and had their brilliance recognised.
@@Hertfordshire_Bikeryeah it must be hard for them. First they got fired from Saab because they went bankrupt and now the same thing happens with NEVS. Such Great cars that never gets to sell. Saab already had Electric car prototypes and hybrids in the early 2000:s...
@@Hertfordshire_Biker They might be brilliant in some aspects but they did a lot of stupid things too. Like doubling the service interval without modifying the engine to handle this, causing a huge amount of catastrophic engine failures. And without addressing this design issue they went under, obviously. And nobody is buying their air crafts either.
@@bounzig I'd imagine that was not the idea of the engineers, more likely the bean counters! Saab Group has a complicated history, but I think they operated as separate companies. They are working with Boeing on a trainer and with BAe on the Tempest. Pretty impressive for a country the size of Sweden.
@@Hertfordshire_Biker They have been working on that air craft since early 90's. It will never work as intended, it's a tax money pit. We have other tech that is much more impressive. No, it was not the bean counters fault. It was a design flaw. The bean counters kept SAAB alive for decades while the engineers spent the money on wasteful things, there is a documentary about this.
Nice and how do you change the tire? An is the motor designed to resist all the vibrations and extreme conditions in a wheel? Brakes can heat to more then 400 degrees... Magnets usually loose the magnetic properties at that temperatures. Many manufacturers wanted to put the motors in the wheels but it was impossible or much too expensive.
For me the biggest benefit of in wheel motors is the lack of need for CV halfshafts which are ridden with lash and breaking issues on basically every EV that exists. It also allows for extreme suspension geometries like a lifted off-road pickup truck without worry about CV angles.
In wheel motors have serious drawbacks too unfortunately, unsprung mass increases dramatically and this affects handling negatively and dramatically. Interesting to see how they solved that?
@@vicbauwens the effect on handling is not dramatic. that is just something autocrossers tell each other to feel better about expensive lightweight wheels.
@@JackMottit must somehow, because a number of manufacturers have played around with this already, I remember a Volvo C30 demonstrator with in wheel motors, nothing ever came from it.
I’ve never driven a SAAB but my friend’s dad raves about his old SAAB and how it was the only car he’s ever driven that would blow in cool air on your face from outside and warm air on your feet at the same time. He’s always talking about how he wishes other cars had that feature!
@@Emppu_T. My 2011 3 series has it. So there are probably cars up to 2013-15 equipped with it. It's not a function I've paid much attention to, I'm not sure when they canceled it. But it wasn't 30 years ago.
I love how the electric drive-train is sparking ever more innovations and increasingly cool products and driving experiences. EV's are not not killing the driving experience, they're the start of a whole new and exciting era of car technology!
Until in 15/20 years when they're all second bangers OUT OF LEASE/WARRANTY -with exploded batteries, and cost 10 times more than the car Itself and is old dilapidated! Antiquated technology.
@@Future-Classic-Cars The amount of money I save for while driving my EV my daily commute, will save me enough money to buy the car again within the 8-year warranty period for the battery pack. So shortly put: I'm not paying for gasoline, I'm saving to pay for a new car. Which also means that essentially I'm only paying once for a new car, not twice. And why would battery costs increase 10 times over time while battery production costs are dropping like crazy over the past decade? And why would old batteries explode? I've got rechargeable batteries from the 90's that still work..
Don't know how long he's been with TG now, but seen him after ages and ages. I used to love his reviews in the old days, always funny. I hope he continues with his unique fun style. 🙂
Finally, modern hub motors in EV cars! I’ve been complaining about this for years! Now, hopefully, we will see conversion kits using this tech so we can add these wheels to older cars, rip out an old dead engine, put the batteries there, and save some of our old classics. Obviously some classic cars are classic BECAUSE of their engines, but for those cars that are just great for looks and not so much driving, this would be a solution.
I hate EV conversions, unless done with cheap ugly mass produced cars no one wants, which no one seems to be doing. I'd imagine most of them get neglected with the unreliability of such conversion, they're probably unbalanced as hell, considering the chassis was designed to have an engine somewhere in it, and not batteries, so the argument of driving better doesn't stick anywhere. And either way EVs have top speeds comparable to cars in the 80s, and the 0-100 time gets pretty old pretty quick. There's more to a car than acceleration, and like I said you won't be going anywhere with that unbalanced mess, unless it's a very straight, very short road. Maybe an empty parking lot!! Fitting :D
I’ve had a view for a long time that, given that the current global volume of ICE cars that should not be trashed (expense, waste, etc.), retrofit of the current fleet if ICE cars would be a logical progression, particularly if a small range of tech and kit options could be designed to be used in high volume models, such as say, a Corolla. This in wheel tech could be a real part of that set of options, by the look of it.
@@BubbleDouble If you look at a velocity curve on a track day have a guess where a majority of the curve falls. It's most definitely not at the high end - it's in the breaking and accelerating. Top speed is infinitely more of a gimmick than acceleration or breaking. Everything else you just said couldn't be more wrong, older cars generally had bigger heavier engines that resulted in CoM's higher off the ground and thus worse roll etc. Battery packs massively lower the CoM and plant the vehicle miles better around corners etc. Suspension set-up would need to be changed, but besides that, everything else would be improved.
@@bilbonob548 Not talking about track driving, of course you aren't reaching top speeds in a track. No one reaches their max speed driving day to day either but the same goes for the acceleration. For track days you have more inexpensive, and way better ICM models, which come perfectly aligned from the factory (same goes for day to day driving...). Not all old cars had bigger engines, most european models had 2-3l engines and most EV conversions I've seen have been done on models like the e30, which is an already nimble car with a light engine. At most the engine including the transmission is going to weigh around 200-250 kgs. Not sure what type of batteries they use for conversions, but a quick google search brings up the weight of a nissan leaf battery to 300 kgs, lets not even bring up tesla batteries, which is what everyone uses. Even if somehow vertically the CoM is better, you can't get over the disbalances between the front and rear axis you're going to cause without stripping the car apart even more.
I'm absolutely sure there's gonna be a lot of aftermarket "SAAB conversion kits" for this one if they'll decide this no name NEVS brand instead of the legendary SAAB that would sky rocket the sales in Northern/North West Europe
Also god-tier off-road capabilities! There was, maybe 20 years ago, a pre-FIAT Jeep EV concept with 4 motors and 4 independently steering wheels. Money doesn't seem to be an object anymore for Wranglers anyway, so I would very much love to see that concept brought to life again.
You would want to go passed 45d! Even with steering by wire you still have support the entire for all the four wheels to turn simultaneously! What an expense?
Those seats look really a futuristic version of SAAB seat. Saab always innovates until they fall in the hands of GM. In the old days, SAAB always took their cars just from production and seal them and then transport them to a track for long term test. Maybe they can do this for this vehicle to get buyer accepting this tech.
Most EV companies want to hide their track testing since the cars weigh as much as a tank and can't handle for crap. The electric torque might hide the weight in drag racing but you can't hide the weight from corners....
GM it's one of the kings in the car industry what are you talking about?? the Americans keep teaching the Europeans how to proper make EV cars, I guess you guys still don't want to learn.
@@christhedoc8689either you have no idea about Saab or about GM. Chevy always made the boring cars...Olds, Buick and later Saturn only did some cool stuff. SAAB was more like chrysler in the late 50s a true Engineering company with bad sales men. But amazing cars & tech
@@christhedoc8689 The build quality of American Teslas is known to be pretty bad for such an expensive car. Irony is that the German built Teslas don't have those build quality issues.
It used to be quite popular in Taiwan among my dad's generation. And for sure I would def buy one regard of its legendary story and such cool aesthetics.
Unsprung mass is the Achilles heel of this kind of electric motor application (driving dynamics wise). And there are a lot of undamped vibrations that will fatigue those motors in time (reliability wise). Although is a great concept in theory, it will never become a mass production option for big manufacturers like VAG, Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance or the huge chinese manufactures like Geely, BYD or Dongfeng. I hope SAAB finds another way to come back to the car market because it still has a lot of fans around the world.
@@markbriggs5531 thanks! there's a couple of us. This part of Ontario is a big hotspot for manufacturing technical excellence, but it's sadly becoming a dying trade. The bright spot in this is that we now specialize in working on such high end jobs as what's seen in this video.
In a practical sense, when you remove the wheel does the motor come with it? Or is the motor fixed to the hub? Some of the b-roll foot showed them fitting a wheel with the motor already in-situ. If that's true, having the tyres changed sounds like a problem.
I love the idea of motors which are directly bolted to the wheels, very good for packaging. But I am concerned about the unsprung mass, even though they said the ratio is balanced but still suspension will have a hard time on bumpy roads.
They could at least save a few kg per corner by omitting the spokes. Prototypes could run 2- or 3-piece race wheels minus the spokes, then production cars could get a bespoke OEM wheel. Ideally, they could even make the motor case double as the wheel barrel. Of course, the rim would have to be bolt-together for mounting tires.
@@Leathersoup The tire provides a spring, and much more sensitive electronics have been hardened enough to create e.g. nuclear artillery in the 50s. Shock loads will be fine.
glad to hear SAAB might be back on automotive track again. However, I am not sure about in-wheel-motor driven car. When it is new, it works for sure! But after having all abuses on most busy part of the car........... I am pretty sure in-wheel-motor will not survive....... or life-span would be very short.
Aptera is also using in hub motors being developed with Elaphe and they're very public about their testing. It's actually quite interesting how well they hold up to extreme driving conditions.
The thing is its electric so no big moving parts that could get out of place with vibrations. Yes it might be damaged when you hit something like a fatass pothole, but by that same logic and situation the wheel would break on a normal car anyways so you'd have to replace it. Also the fact that three wheels can fail but itll still get you home on one is great
@@TooMuchRecoil Not really though - you're hitting the wheel itself much harder on each pothole so you'll break the wheel before a normal car would have. Also it's perhaps possible that some wheels fail and it's still drivable but it depends on more information than is in this video - it's just as likely that one failure would disable the whole car (see why a dual motor tesla model 3 does not actually gain redundancy vs the single motor one)
This was unfortunately a One-off Prototype. SAAB has been dead since 2011 and NEVS, the company which made this car is now in so called "Hibernation" having laid off 95% of it's staff. As much as we All want them to, SAAB might never make a car again.
@@MustBePerfectForeverlordstown declared bankrupt and sued Foxconn for harm I think I wheel motors are cool but they need to stand a lot of abuse And tires see a lot of damage Imagine a tireburst causing your car to become an insurance loss
Twice I've had alloys shatter because of potholes in the UK. Second time it munched the brake disc and hub. Can't imagine the cost if that happens on this.
00:00 Intro 00:42 The NEVS Emily GT 02:58 Interior 03:48 How the motors work 07:24 Applications 09:37 Handling 10:53 Conclusion (more about in-wheel-motors and who invented them)
Thank you. I always appreciate it when people take the time to lay out the timeline of a video. That said, I’d like to know what the hell mr. Whitehead is wearing on his shirt.
I see little bit of New 95 at the rear there! Nice! The 9000 had massive rear seat space as well. IMO the 9000 was the best SAAB made. The crazy thing about this concept is the unsprung weight, which normally manufacturers try to keep down. The video goes into this -I do wonder however what happens if you hit some large pot-hole with one of these wheels. (And, as I type this, the video mentions this too ;-) Oh, and scr*w GM for not utilising the SAAB excellent engineers.
+1 to your comment! I am curious about the unsprung mass, and also the angular momentum the front motors will have during fast, long curves. I'd imagine the braking is not as impacted because of regen, but that would be another curveball. Scr*w GM indeed
Yeah, I’m pretty skeptical about all the unsprung weight. I don’t think you could ever get this to be as comfortable on bumpy roads as a similar EV sedan with inboard motors. Not to mention the fact that all the engineering to make wheel motors work surely adds to the price and production time.
The car uses air suspension to iron out the bumps. Protean have been developing their motors over several years. Also worth noting, Evergrande owned Protean during the time of the Emily project
@@davidthornley4375 less unsprung weight makes a significant difference in handling since the suspension and its components can be lighter which will improve stability and bump absorption, Keep in mind that the company made the unsprung weight manageable for the suspension which doesn't mean its ideal, but what they are focusing on is the concept of having in wheel motors and its advantages to older vehicles
I've seen a couple of hub-motor cars now, and my concern is for the motors in the wheels. Every bump you drive over, every ramp-lip, speed bump or anything else is going to create some degree of shock to the motor. When they're inboard, they're protected from shocks (sudden motion spikes/vibrations, not electric shocks) by the ... shocks. But hub motors are first to feel every pothole or disturbance in the road. Will this have an impact on their reliability or lifetime?
Never gonna happen...NEVS shut down March 2023 and basically liquidated the company. In addition to laying off 95% of the company, NEVS also lost the rights to SAAB trademarks.
I wish SAAB had never bitten the dust. There was always something special about them. I loved the weirdness of them. They even had a distinctive smell of the leather and other interior bits that I remember from childhood. Sad the Emily won’t ever be mass produced because it sure looks like a promising alternative to a Model S, just with proper Scandinavian flair.
Thing that always concerns me about Wheel/Hub motors is the un-sprung mass. Would be nice to have information how this system compares to traditional setup mass wise. are we 10% heavier 100% heavier?
Great video, glad you gave proper credit to Protean and Porsche! I do wonder why an OEM still hasn't picked this up yet though, I imagine it's just too expensive.
I've been wanting this for lawn mower and tractor applications. It would be sweet to have a 16" front wheel on a riding mower that was electric powered hub motor.
@@ILOVEBACONBOY2018 for uniqueness and putting so much work and effort....i know it's something really new and maybe will cost a lot for it's maintanence but let's see what's future is all about..
Funny... NEVS is in fact in liquidation since March this year... The former Saab factory in Sweden has been put into a hibernation plan as NEVS scrabbles to avoid bankruptcy. Of the plant's 340 employees, 320 have been laid off... Its Chinese owner, Evergrande's automobile division, is in deep debt and has been trying to sell their shares... Most likely, NEVS won't survive at all...
Love it! The exterior of the car is lacking, but the inside looks nice. I would love to see this tech in Porsche EVs in the future. 600-mile range, and I'd sign on the dotted line.
How long do you think you’ll get the ~450 actual mile range it comes with? Batteries gonna degrade my guy, not as fast as the child slaves mining that cobalt, but whatever you do you.
I always wonder why more automakers don't go with in-wheel motors. I know that truck company is having a difficult time, but I think that's more to do with the people than the tech. I think Hub motors could make EV conversions easier too. I can't wait to see more advancements in EV tech. I do miss SAAB also.
@@joshuasterling2144 I believe regenerative braking can be developed to counter that. I did agree with the earlier response about the increased weight being harder to steer. My question is, we don't have to make track worthy performance machines for the average consumer. 400whp is more than adequate for an everyday sedan. And with the creation of those cars, you'll get more research on making track worthy variants. If we don't legitimately try, then there won't be any future developments.
@@JasonB72481 My specific reference was in the context of sport driving where that aspect of the car plays out less. Other than than I understand what your saying.
Every former SAAB driver knows that they are extremely good cars to drive - and tinker with. Those wheels have to go on my SAAB 9-5 with a few batteries somewhere and the beautiful (almost not tuned) AERO engine providing range extension at it's most efficient rpm. 😊😊😊
For your reference about what happened to saab: The story is related to NEVS and two chinese companiee, geely and chery. Geely, the company that bought volvo and lotus, started a R&D centre in Sweden in 2013, and developed the CMA platform (xc40, polestar 2 and a lot of link&co) and SEA archetechture (smart #1, zeekr, ex30, eletre). while CEVT employed former volve engineers and a lot of SAAB employees, the chery bought the brand. It's said that chery produced components for SAABs after 2012 when they bought the brand. As for NEVS, they bought the assets like factories.
Saab went EV-only nearly a decade ago. I loved my 9-2X Aero Turbo, but GM ruined them. Glad they are resurfacing once again. Apologies that I've been forced to buy German and Volvo ever since!
What happens when I get a flat tire or it's time to rotate the tires? Can I take it to a regular service station like Midas, for example, to get the wheels balanced and rotated?
you still have a normal rim. You would need to destroy the rim to be able to damage the motor. But it is nice of you to try to invent issues where there are none.
I do respect and love NEVS for having part of the Saab 9-5s outer design incooperated into the vehicle. Now if they could convince Saab the airplane manufacturer to cooperate with them to make other vehicles, we might look at the revival of Saab, like a Griffin rising out of the Snow depths of a Cave
removing gears from the mototrs is the one thing ive been thinking that all manufacturers should do. these guys know what they are doing. wish i could work with them this car is a dream project bc of all the efficient engineering gone into it
Bring it back as a SAAB EV and I would buy one. I miss SAAB quite a bit and this would be a great way to bring them back to the world.
It’s a SAAB other than the badge. You’d have my full respect if you replace the badge. It would be a decent business opportunity to make a easy to install badge kit.
You heard the man: Saab had trouble, the Chinese company that bought them had troubles, and now whoever the new owners are pushed this out the door in less than a year. What could possibly go wrong?
agreed
@@viscountslappy5085 it's NEVS, as written in the video title, in case you don't read
@@viscountslappy5085not new owners, just engineers doing engineering. This cars is likely made with love and not for corporate reasons.
I did some work for NEVS on their 9-3 based EV taxi for China. Great bunch of guys. Working REALLY hard with little resource. I am also a HUGE Saab fan, so i wish them all the best
Did they end up releasing the 9-3 ev In china?
@@PH-kl5qqThose vehicles never went on sale. Lots of the original Saab engineers went to CEVT and works for geely and volvo now.
same
Imagine being able to retrofit these wheels on your old Saab. NEVS would revolutionize the 2nd hand Saab market overnight and solve it's own recycling issue as a brand. I couldn't imagine anything more in the spirit of Saab like that.
That sounds like a brilliant idea if it’s possible.
And you could do it in many other brands.
Not just the wheels, but the battery as well. And here we get stuck with the design.
@@vitalyromas6752m
Absolutely beautiful car. Please brand it as SAAB with the ignition key at the SAAB position.
true
I was just saying that. It's a no brainer to keep it as SAAB.
We just need Saab back
Yes sir to that
SAAB, the military supplier that owns the rights to the name, is not allowing it - hence, NEVS.
Its a SAAB looking car definitely, unique and in my opinion, really good looking. Kinda wish SAAB could come back.
I still belive 🙏
SAAD 😆
There's so much potential in the brand itself. They should just own it and use the SAAB name instead of something new not much people know. Unless they use the NEVS as a test before reviving the SAAB name.
@@The_Curious_Cat NEVS are sadly not allowed to use the SAAB AB name, something that was said in 2016 after killing the last hope for the 9-3 platform
@@jonasrc9113 Oh. Dammit. :/
Saab has always been unique. Not looking at other car makers. They make their car. A Saab.
Once a Saab lover, always a Saab fan.
SAAB never made a profit from its car division...
Really? Nevertheless? Because of expensive all in house engineering?
@@chrissmith2114correction spelling : .never ( not nevertheless)
@@B.Alance1st What are you smokin' ?
@chrissmith2114 I m asking a question, you just have an insult back...have a great day .
They should launch it as a SAAB. So much history. So much heritage. And recognition.
They are making one of the best 4.5 gen fighter jets so...
I believe that they lost the privilege of using the name Saab by Saab AB. Unless they allow it there won't be any new brands with the name Saab
Someone need to buy Nevs and then change the name to SAAB again, all the factory from Saab is still there.
Unlike Hyundai who really should have rebranded prior to N-line
In 2023 the company went bankrupt unfortunately...
It's so much more interesting to see brands compete to get the most range out of their EV's than to see them get the most hp's out of them.
They market hp numbers and acceleration to get people to see that electric is not boring, but, yes it is good to see mileage marketing as well
Electric cars are boring
@@ronaldmcdonald9322- Buying gasoline/petroleum is boring, old, and tired.
@@brawnbenson552 EVs won't ever beat ICE cars in practicality Especially in distance. Never. Not like in a 5 or 10yrs to come
@@NaNoTech4Disaster EVs are already way more practical in terms of maintenance with fewer moving parts and no oil. And yes, lithium-based batteries are not at all suitable for cars, even though they are almost reaching parity in distance with ICEs. That will change with solid state batteries, though.
By the way, your phrasing is hilarious. "Ever", "never", "in a 5 or 10 yrs to come" 🤣
I am just going to buy this and brand it as a SAAB myself with my own custom made stickers or something!
This car is amazing....the SAAB spirit lives on ♥
You can get Saab emblems online.
Me too 😂
I’ve said for a few years, that the EV-era would be a perfect window for SAAB to make a comeback. 👌🏼
love it, but why is that?
@@my-days-co Because SAAB is a strong brand but comebacks are difficult. Many established car manufacturers are struggling with how to make a natural transition to the EV era but SAAB would have kind of a cleans slate in that sense. 🤔 Not too much baggage but still a strong brand as a bit of a quirky car maker. I also think they should make a proper retro redo of the 96. What BMW did with Mini. 🤩
@@Sebastian-cd1mo agree, very interesting
WOW WOW WHAT A FKING BORING SHOW THIS HAS BECAME 🤮🤮
There are not SAAB , it is an China car now,. Only name are the same
I’m in love with the idea that SAAB could return. And to do it with the Emily GT and its in-wheel technology would be a coup I bet. And that front seat design! Absolute Saabism ❤️
Saab car brand won't return as disappointingly, the aeronautical division blocked the used of the Saab brand name. I hear you though. I'm a complete Saab nut and would love for Saab to return!!
Never Say Never !
@@busybee2033 Never say Nevser
@@shafeeemamdee6638
let's just call it a SAAB even if that wasn't really the case it looks like a SAAB it feels like a SAAB
IT IS A SAAB IN MY BOOKS
It's now owned by a Chinese conglomerate with CCP Chinese owners who all dance to the CCP Chinese tune... When will people grow up.
As a former Saab 93 Turbo X, I'd love to see this make it to production. Saab were into electric way back in a wagon they had before EV was cool. Go Saab!!
Please finalize and put this car into production. We need the essence of SAAB to keep going!
Nevs will sadly not to that but Nevs has put the Project for sale and other manufactors are intrested has nevs said, so who knows?
@@OliverRysen Whoever, whatever. SAAB needs to live!
@@alexdiezg They should buy the trademark SAAB Automotive name back.
Koenigsegg is interested, so I've heard. (Living near the factory)
@@thereal_mikegnorp Please be Koenigsegg then. One Swede to revive another.
Never thought I'd see the SAAB name associated with vehicles again. Makes me appreciate my 9-3 even more
I had an '08 Saab 93 V6 turbo - might be the best car I ever owned. Would love a Saab comeback, especially those awesome seats they had!
Saabs after 2000 had nothing to do with the Saab/scania we know and low after GM bought them
Nice to hear someone else pointing out that it's the sprung/unsprung ratio that's really important (rather than just unsprung mass)
“Don’t worry we’re doubling the unsprung mass, we’re making entire vehicles so egregiously heavy you won’t even notice.”
@@rsithron My thoughts exactly. But I'm willing to suspend my disbelief. (see what I did there?)
I’ve had 4 SAAB’s in my time and I am only 47. Brilliant cars so I hope their engineers have not lost what they once had, before GM tried to put them in reins. I see so much potential for this system.
I’m curious how resilient the engines and their enclosures are. It’s a very destructive environment down there.
Still have my 9-3
If they were that brilliant, you still needed 4? Had a top of the line 9-3 turbo once. By far the worst car I have ever driven...
@@bassicallybassically3902 That's because you had a GM Saab. Basically a Vauxhall Vectra in a party frock! My 9-5 was also GM and was the worst of all the Saab's i had.
Yes yes yes !! Loved the two 9000s I had in the 90's and Saab's attention to detail, safety and performance in defiance of GM's mass market cost-cutting philosophy. Emily alludes to a Taycan but with the Saab looks and practicality ... this is the first EV I really would want to buy !! ❤
Yes, yes, yes! Been waiting for in wheel motors for years! Now give us small city cars with good range using the space freed up by not needing an in-body motor!
I remember Jeremy Clarkson on Top Gear testing a Mercedes-Benz SLS Gullwing with electric motors behind each wheel. Performance was unbelievable, with an astronomical price. It's great to see a company using this technology, looking at developing it for regular road cars. Hope the rest of the EV industry doesn't kill it off!
Ah, but the one Clarkson tested didn't have in-wheel motors. There were 4 individual motors but with 4 short drive shafts to each wheel.
"" Hope the rest of the EV industry doesn't kill it off!" it's glaring how often technical ideas that seem Columbus's egg but ultimately don't survive, as it also relies on cost and scalability, subsequently get blamed on outside forces 'killing it off'. No, if it works then everybody will try to copy it, not kill it off. It if doesn't work, it will not survive by itself and doesn't need to be killed.
A US company, Aptera, is putting the ev motors in each wheel also.
It just make sense to move the motors into the wheels - if they are compact and light enough - and use them for acceleration and breaking as unsprung mass, the latest Yasa motor got only 24kg, 5l volume and output 800NM. That's already useable. No I am not working with Mercedes, I am just excited what is already in mass production or will get into this year.
GM had the in-wheel motors with their 1st EV, but of course 'unsprung weight ' raised its ugly head. Now things are different, materials lighter and electric motors ridiculously compact so IT IS TIME!
Elimination of axles, brake systems, massive increases of passenger space and range, along with incredibly effective torque vectoring all adds up to the potential future of EV's. Brilliant! This is the engineering that can change the industry. Kudos to NEVS (I do wish they'd just call it a Saab).
Loved my Saab 9-5. Felt like I was driving in the clouds. It’s great to see Saab doing this level of innovation. What a time to be alive
yes, the $1000 car. Every time it went to the dealer, it cost $1000.
@@godsinbox not true I had a Saab 95 for five years. I had one problem with it in five years. The doorhandle got stuck. That was it.
@@godsinboxGood thing they rarely brake down then.
@@godsinbox Well, it depends on how often you would have to go to the dealer. I would be glad to go there once a year if that's all it took!
I'm still driving my 1999 Saab 9-5 that I bought in 2007. My son also got infected with Saab and bought a 2006 9-3 and loves it.
Thank you Top Gear for finally making a video involving Protean. I’ve been waiting almost a decade for this and hopefully Mate Rimac watches this and likes it, there’s so much potential in hub wheel motors
Interested in the longevity of the engines since they're on the wheels. The wheels usually take and absorb alot of vibrations that we in the car don't feel because we are seperated by the suspension.
I'm glad he covered the unsprung mass issue.
Definitely, although to say that you can make it "as good" suspension wise as lower unsprung mass is a bit of a stretch.
Great looking car, though a bit of a pity it doesnt have a Saab badge on it. I think this technology is seriously impressive and could be the future of electric motoring.
As a Saab nutjob, I was disappointed that when the Saab automotive industry died, Saab aeronautical took back the name and blocked the use of the Brand name to be used again!!
@@shafeeemamdee6638
I never like fake badges, but on this car it’s a must to install a SAAB badge.
What about disposal of the batteries? And how long does it take to recharge the batteries? 🤔 Just asking…😊
@@CathyMiller-k4b There's always one......
I feel like the Chinese overlords had a huge say in the design. It lacks the winter-friendly features of a real SAAB, and it doesn't look like it has a night panel mode. Those cute touch sensitive door handles don't work when they're covered in ice and you're wearing gloves.
Inwheel motor is the very natural way to go for ev conversions, I hope we see more of them as affordable kits.
but wouldn't so much unsprung mass be abysmal?
But if we start with a simple bicycle to E-bike conversion , a mid drive unit is superior to motor hub .
@lovevideojuegos would you simply not just fill the engine bay and fuel tank area with batteries instead.
Essentially replacing the bulk of the weight with batteries?
@@lovevideojuegos well... Could be an issue, with older motor technology, but would be a more straight forward conversion for ICE cars that are not built from the ground up to be EVs.
@@edentahilla9295 In a rwd car it would eliminate the diff, driveshafts, fuel tank g,box some engine space(allowing crumple zone) that empty space is now a battery pack
I have seen this car in Trollhattan recently, it is an absolute looker! Not a mule or rough prototype, but a zero-production, ready to ride BEV. Such a great interior to! Having seen the very innovative specifications, I am flabergasted this isn't in full scale production yet.
Well, considering they made this car 10 years ago (which is why they are using the pancake motors that hybrids used to sandwich between the transmission and ICE) and they have recently filed for bankruptcy...
@@gcodori I don't think you were paying attention.
NEVS shut down March 2023 and basically liquidated the company.
In addition to laying off 95% of the company, NEVS also lost the rights to SAAB trademarks which unfortunately for you, this car was based upon. But fear not, we can at least pretend this car is real...
You just blew my dream
@@gcodori None of that means that it can't be resurrected. There are plenty and I do mean PLENTY of current companies that were entirely shut down and sold off at some point in their history or other.
Just thinking of a few right now, and restricting myself to only vehicle manufacturers
Audi
MG
Maserati
Lamborghini
Bugatti
Triumph m/cycles
Benelli m/cycles
MV Agusta m/cycles
BSA m/cycles
And that is by no means a definitive list, it was just some of the companies that I can think of right now.
As a tank nerd the Porsche bit doesnt surprise me one bit. Because he also tried to incorporate hybrid drives into several of his tank designs, like the Ferdinand/Elefant tank destroyer (Formerly Porsche Tiger).
This vehicle looks very good, extremly good for an early prototyp in fact. Nice to see that the future could be good looking and nice :)
The interesting thing about in-wheel EM, you can use it for aircraft to eliminate the need for towing vehicles, therefore minimising the possibility of runway incursion with airport equipment.
Vueling have just demonstrated this last week using a system called "WheelTug"
Its still heavy tho. Aeroeng is all about weight reduction.
@@dru4670 yeah nah.
the bit of weight it adds is more than worth it ion exchange for only having to start the turbines when taking off.
@@dru4670 it's not about the flying bits. It's about operational stuffs on land. For take off it won't be used, just for taxiing from apron to runway before departure.
@@dru4670 What it eliminates is fuel usage from the main engines during taxiing. That fuel usage can be quite substantial.
When Saab disappeared I genuinely thought that would the last time we would see them altogether. Who would have thought that behind the scenes the techs and engineers were hard at work thinking about the future. I do hope that NEVS are able to bring this vehicle to the market but I do hope they put in some more buttons!
Never gonna happen...NEVS shut down March 2023 and basically liquidated the company.
In addition to laying off 95% of the company, NEVS also lost the rights to SAAB trademarks.
@@Lamster66 Well they (Nevs) produced cars called Saab so ....
If they name it a SAAB they can have my money. BRING BACK SAAB!!!!
It's so sad that this might not ever sell. NEVS has almost gone backrupt and they have fired pretty much everyone except the CEO. I hope some company buys this prodject, its currently a few companies looking at it. This looks like a amazing car, something that makes Saab live on.
What I find sad is that the engineers who strived to design and make this, were let go. I only hope they got jobs quickly and had their brilliance recognised.
@@Hertfordshire_Bikeryeah it must be hard for them. First they got fired from Saab because they went bankrupt and now the same thing happens with NEVS. Such Great cars that never gets to sell. Saab already had Electric car prototypes and hybrids in the early 2000:s...
@@Hertfordshire_Biker They might be brilliant in some aspects but they did a lot of stupid things too. Like doubling the service interval without modifying the engine to handle this, causing a huge amount of catastrophic engine failures. And without addressing this design issue they went under, obviously.
And nobody is buying their air crafts either.
@@bounzig I'd imagine that was not the idea of the engineers, more likely the bean counters! Saab Group has a complicated history, but I think they operated as separate companies. They are working with Boeing on a trainer and with BAe on the Tempest. Pretty impressive for a country the size of Sweden.
@@Hertfordshire_Biker They have been working on that air craft since early 90's. It will never work as intended, it's a tax money pit. We have other tech that is much more impressive.
No, it was not the bean counters fault. It was a design flaw. The bean counters kept SAAB alive for decades while the engineers spent the money on wasteful things, there is a documentary about this.
What an excellent comprehensive review. Answers all the questions
Apart from the two main ones - will it ever go into production and how much will it cost.
That was a crap review. They're missing out on the really cool and innovative stuff about that car.
@@thereal_mikegnorpare you hoing to enlighten us instead then?
@@JonnyD3ath Chat gpt is your friend.
@@thereal_mikegnorp so you’re not then.
Nice and how do you change the tire?
An is the motor designed to resist all the vibrations and extreme conditions in a wheel?
Brakes can heat to more then 400 degrees... Magnets usually loose the magnetic properties at that temperatures.
Many manufacturers wanted to put the motors in the wheels but it was impossible or much too expensive.
For me the biggest benefit of in wheel motors is the lack of need for CV halfshafts which are ridden with lash and breaking issues on basically every EV that exists. It also allows for extreme suspension geometries like a lifted off-road pickup truck without worry about CV angles.
In wheel motors have serious drawbacks too unfortunately, unsprung mass increases dramatically and this affects handling negatively and dramatically. Interesting to see how they solved that?
The downside is an increase in unsprung mass. Tricky trade off
@@vicbauwens the effect on handling is not dramatic. that is just something autocrossers tell each other to feel better about expensive lightweight wheels.
@@JackMottit must somehow, because a number of manufacturers have played around with this already, I remember a Volvo C30 demonstrator with in wheel motors, nothing ever came from it.
I’ve never driven a SAAB but my friend’s dad raves about his old SAAB and how it was the only car he’s ever driven that would blow in cool air on your face from outside and warm air on your feet at the same time. He’s always talking about how he wishes other cars had that feature!
Any bmw can do that too. Just saying.
There are hundreds of occasions over the past few years when I have desperately wanted this feature. Wow. Saab then...
@@bounzig this was like 30 years ago
@@Emppu_T. My 2011 3 series has it. So there are probably cars up to 2013-15 equipped with it.
It's not a function I've paid much attention to, I'm not sure when they canceled it. But it wasn't 30 years ago.
@@Emppu_T. I did a little research, it seems they still provide this function.
Been a SAAB owner and loved my 9-3. Would be so happy if SAAB would come back.
That would be a real reincarnation.
Love the overall look of the car,especially the unique looking roof line
Just get a second gen Scion Tc : much cheaper and more practical in hatchback two doors
They should definitely rebrand it as SAAB! It's a wonderful concept ❤
Question; Driving along a motorway, would it then be possible to use one ore two wheels for forward trust and the rest for reloading the battery?
Yes but that would defeat the purpose. You’d be loosing more energy moving forward than gaining it
I love how the electric drive-train is sparking ever more innovations and increasingly cool products and driving experiences. EV's are not not killing the driving experience, they're the start of a whole new and exciting era of car technology!
Couple this with new battery technologies emerging over the next 2-3 years, and EVs will be dominant in 10 years.
Except this is not innovation, it's been done before and no one uses it because it sucks. Reason? Unsprung weight and RPM limit
Until in 15/20 years when they're all second bangers OUT OF LEASE/WARRANTY -with exploded batteries, and cost 10 times more than the car Itself and is old dilapidated! Antiquated technology.
@@Future-Classic-Cars The amount of money I save for while driving my EV my daily commute, will save me enough money to buy the car again within the 8-year warranty period for the battery pack.
So shortly put: I'm not paying for gasoline, I'm saving to pay for a new car. Which also means that essentially I'm only paying once for a new car, not twice.
And why would battery costs increase 10 times over time while battery production costs are dropping like crazy over the past decade?
And why would old batteries explode?
I've got rechargeable batteries from the 90's that still work..
Don't know how long he's been with TG now, but seen him after ages and ages. I used to love his reviews in the old days, always funny. I hope he continues with his unique fun style. 🙂
The secret is a hand turned generator powered by the person in the passenger seat hidden in the glove box. no more range anxiety
Finally, modern hub motors in EV cars! I’ve been complaining about this for years! Now, hopefully, we will see conversion kits using this tech so we can add these wheels to older cars, rip out an old dead engine, put the batteries there, and save some of our old classics. Obviously some classic cars are classic BECAUSE of their engines, but for those cars that are just great for looks and not so much driving, this would be a solution.
I hate EV conversions, unless done with cheap ugly mass produced cars no one wants, which no one seems to be doing. I'd imagine most of them get neglected with the unreliability of such conversion, they're probably unbalanced as hell, considering the chassis was designed to have an engine somewhere in it, and not batteries, so the argument of driving better doesn't stick anywhere. And either way EVs have top speeds comparable to cars in the 80s, and the 0-100 time gets pretty old pretty quick. There's more to a car than acceleration, and like I said you won't be going anywhere with that unbalanced mess, unless it's a very straight, very short road. Maybe an empty parking lot!! Fitting :D
I’ve had a view for a long time that, given that the current global volume of ICE cars that should not be trashed (expense, waste, etc.), retrofit of the current fleet if ICE cars would be a logical progression, particularly if a small range of tech and kit options could be designed to be used in high volume models, such as say, a Corolla. This in wheel tech could be a real part of that set of options, by the look of it.
@@BubbleDouble If you look at a velocity curve on a track day have a guess where a majority of the curve falls. It's most definitely not at the high end - it's in the breaking and accelerating. Top speed is infinitely more of a gimmick than acceleration or breaking. Everything else you just said couldn't be more wrong, older cars generally had bigger heavier engines that resulted in CoM's higher off the ground and thus worse roll etc. Battery packs massively lower the CoM and plant the vehicle miles better around corners etc. Suspension set-up would need to be changed, but besides that, everything else would be improved.
@@bilbonob548 Not talking about track driving, of course you aren't reaching top speeds in a track. No one reaches their max speed driving day to day either but the same goes for the acceleration. For track days you have more inexpensive, and way better ICM models, which come perfectly aligned from the factory (same goes for day to day driving...). Not all old cars had bigger engines, most european models had 2-3l engines and most EV conversions I've seen have been done on models like the e30, which is an already nimble car with a light engine. At most the engine including the transmission is going to weigh around 200-250 kgs. Not sure what type of batteries they use for conversions, but a quick google search brings up the weight of a nissan leaf battery to 300 kgs, lets not even bring up tesla batteries, which is what everyone uses. Even if somehow vertically the CoM is better, you can't get over the disbalances between the front and rear axis you're going to cause without stripping the car apart even more.
Co sign
When I see these hub motors, all I can think about is the MASSIVE unsprung weight.
And about the ease of damaging them should you blow a tyre.
Yay basic engineering!
@@ii7317 mate.
it's inside a rim.
blowing a tyre ain't even close to whats required to get through the rim and to the motor.
@@anonym3017still huge unsprung weight, a heavy car ruining the roads and a pile of toxic scrap in ~10 years.
@@gamerdrive5565 still taking that over any SUV.
As a lifelong SAAB fan from a family of SAAB owners, it is so good to see the next SAAB car, even if it is in spirit only.
I'm absolutely sure there's gonna be a lot of aftermarket "SAAB conversion kits" for this one if they'll decide this no name NEVS brand instead of the legendary SAAB that would sky rocket the sales in Northern/North West Europe
This looks really nice. Plus, the wheel spindles could be designed to articulate 90d at all four corners.
For what purpose?
@@st33ldi9ital very easy parking!
Also god-tier off-road capabilities!
There was, maybe 20 years ago, a pre-FIAT Jeep EV concept with 4 motors and 4 independently steering wheels. Money doesn't seem to be an object anymore for Wranglers anyway, so I would very much love to see that concept brought to life again.
@@st33ldi9italjust imagine.
You would want to go passed 45d! Even with steering by wire you still have support the entire for all the four wheels to turn simultaneously! What an expense?
Those seats look really a futuristic version of SAAB seat. Saab always innovates until they fall in the hands of GM.
In the old days, SAAB always took their cars just from production and seal them and then transport them to a track for long term test. Maybe they can do this for this vehicle to get buyer accepting this tech.
Most EV companies want to hide their track testing since the cars weigh as much as a tank and can't handle for crap.
The electric torque might hide the weight in drag racing but you can't hide the weight from corners....
GM it's one of the kings in the car industry what are you talking about?? the Americans keep teaching the Europeans how to proper make EV cars, I guess you guys still don't want to learn.
Owned by chinese group now?
@@christhedoc8689either you have no idea about Saab or about GM. Chevy always made the boring cars...Olds, Buick and later Saturn only did some cool stuff. SAAB was more like chrysler in the late 50s a true Engineering company with bad sales men. But amazing cars & tech
@@christhedoc8689 The build quality of American Teslas is known to be pretty bad for such an expensive car. Irony is that the German built Teslas don't have those build quality issues.
It used to be quite popular in Taiwan among my dad's generation. And for sure I would def buy one regard of its legendary story and such cool aesthetics.
Not only does the car have looks that hints of a Saab car but the EV design has the design thought process that we expect of a Saab car.
I would have liked it if the saab logo and the production in Sweden had been kept. But nevs also has a good design
Having being attached to the wheels henc exposed to excess vibration, how does vibration impacts the reliability of the motor ?
Unsprung mass is the Achilles heel of this kind of electric motor application (driving dynamics wise). And there are a lot of undamped vibrations that will fatigue those motors in time (reliability wise). Although is a great concept in theory, it will never become a mass production option for big manufacturers like VAG, Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance or the huge chinese manufactures like Geely, BYD or Dongfeng. I hope SAAB finds another way to come back to the car market because it still has a lot of fans around the world.
Was scrolling through the comments to find this exact comment. The idea is good but its unsustainable.
air suspension and active dampers. I feel like he would have said it if was uncomfortable
@@PH-kl5qq Who mentioned comfort? 🤔
I guess its plenty comfortable, but its not the issue we are are adressing.
Top notch engineering. No less than I'd expect from those clever Swedish engineers. I hope it gets into production.
Except for the machine building pieces seen @1:48 which is made by ATS that is located in Cambridge, Ontario, Canada.
@@conservativeontarian328Thanks for the info. Clever Canadian engineers too :)
@@markbriggs5531 thanks! there's a couple of us. This part of Ontario is a big hotspot for manufacturing technical excellence, but it's sadly becoming a dying trade. The bright spot in this is that we now specialize in working on such high end jobs as what's seen in this video.
In a practical sense, when you remove the wheel does the motor come with it? Or is the motor fixed to the hub? Some of the b-roll foot showed them fitting a wheel with the motor already in-situ. If that's true, having the tyres changed sounds like a problem.
I love the idea of motors which are directly bolted to the wheels, very good for packaging. But I am concerned about the unsprung mass, even though they said the ratio is balanced but still suspension will have a hard time on bumpy roads.
They could at least save a few kg per corner by omitting the spokes. Prototypes could run 2- or 3-piece race wheels minus the spokes, then production cars could get a bespoke OEM wheel. Ideally, they could even make the motor case double as the wheel barrel. Of course, the rim would have to be bolt-together for mounting tires.
@@Leathersoup The tire provides a spring, and much more sensitive electronics have been hardened enough to create e.g. nuclear artillery in the 50s. Shock loads will be fine.
It sounds like they've attempted to balance the ratio by using a ridiculous sized battery. I dread to think what the overall weight is.
@@tewrgh It's basically a Lucid Air plus an extra standard range battery, so probably 6000-7000 pounds.
@@tewrgh And the price.
glad to hear SAAB might be back on automotive track again. However, I am not sure about in-wheel-motor driven car. When it is new, it works for sure! But after having all abuses on most busy part of the car........... I am pretty sure in-wheel-motor will not survive....... or life-span would be very short.
Aptera is also using in hub motors being developed with Elaphe and they're very public about their testing. It's actually quite interesting how well they hold up to extreme driving conditions.
The thing is its electric so no big moving parts that could get out of place with vibrations. Yes it might be damaged when you hit something like a fatass pothole, but by that same logic and situation the wheel would break on a normal car anyways so you'd have to replace it. Also the fact that three wheels can fail but itll still get you home on one is great
@@TooMuchRecoil Not really though - you're hitting the wheel itself much harder on each pothole so you'll break the wheel before a normal car would have. Also it's perhaps possible that some wheels fail and it's still drivable but it depends on more information than is in this video - it's just as likely that one failure would disable the whole car (see why a dual motor tesla model 3 does not actually gain redundancy vs the single motor one)
This was unfortunately a One-off Prototype. SAAB has been dead since 2011 and NEVS, the company which made this car is now in so called "Hibernation" having laid off 95% of it's staff.
As much as we All want them to, SAAB might never make a car again.
@@MustBePerfectForeverlordstown declared bankrupt and sued Foxconn for harm
I think I wheel motors are cool but they need to stand a lot of abuse
And tires see a lot of damage
Imagine a tireburst causing your car to become an insurance loss
How much to switch from Summer wheels to Winter wheels?
And who can switch the Tyres?
Twice I've had alloys shatter because of potholes in the UK. Second time it munched the brake disc and hub. Can't imagine the cost if that happens on this.
Yeah it's so much more likely too with the weight in the wheel. You'd need a LOT more sidewall if you wanted to have a chance of it surviving
00:00 Intro
00:42 The NEVS Emily GT
02:58 Interior
03:48 How the motors work
07:24 Applications
09:37 Handling
10:53 Conclusion (more about in-wheel-motors and who invented them)
Thank you. I always appreciate it when people take the time to lay out the timeline of a video.
That said, I’d like to know what the hell mr. Whitehead is wearing on his shirt.
@@fifthbusiness1678the guy speaking about motors? A microphone with thingy that makes you sound better (don't know how to explain).
Saab is like a Phoenix....raising from ashes ❤😁😉👍
I see little bit of New 95 at the rear there! Nice!
The 9000 had massive rear seat space as well. IMO the 9000 was the best SAAB made.
The crazy thing about this concept is the unsprung weight, which normally manufacturers try to keep down. The video goes into this -I do wonder however what happens if you hit some large pot-hole with one of these wheels. (And, as I type this, the video mentions this too ;-)
Oh, and scr*w GM for not utilising the SAAB excellent engineers.
+1 to your comment!
I am curious about the unsprung mass, and also the angular momentum the front motors will have during fast, long curves. I'd imagine the braking is not as impacted because of regen, but that would be another curveball.
Scr*w GM indeed
+1 the comment i was looking for...
F3ed the word "sprung" and got the same.
Yeah, I’m pretty skeptical about all the unsprung weight. I don’t think you could ever get this to be as comfortable on bumpy roads as a similar EV sedan with inboard motors. Not to mention the fact that all the engineering to make wheel motors work surely adds to the price and production time.
The car uses air suspension to iron out the bumps. Protean have been developing their motors over several years. Also worth noting, Evergrande owned Protean during the time of the Emily project
@@davidthornley4375 less unsprung weight makes a significant difference in handling since the suspension and its components can be lighter which will improve stability and bump absorption, Keep in mind that the company made the unsprung weight manageable for the suspension which doesn't mean its ideal, but what they are focusing on is the concept of having in wheel motors and its advantages to older vehicles
Judging by Tom's face during driving the suspension is just fine, he never mentioned it being too rough or anything.
Most roads today are not bumpy anyway.
Aptera uses hub motors as well. “Until now” statement is inaccurate.
Rest looks awesome though.
Amazing project.
Amazing history.
Amazing news!
I really hope this will be the future of mobility.
🏁🏎️💨
@Skjoldborg8 You could add "Amazing nevs" to your list....
@@stennordenmalm1735 haha touché! 😜
I hope they make it, it’s brilliant.
They will sadly not, Nevs have put this project on sale and they say that there are many that are intrestded in it.
I've seen a couple of hub-motor cars now, and my concern is for the motors in the wheels. Every bump you drive over, every ramp-lip, speed bump or anything else is going to create some degree of shock to the motor. When they're inboard, they're protected from shocks (sudden motion spikes/vibrations, not electric shocks) by the ... shocks. But hub motors are first to feel every pothole or disturbance in the road. Will this have an impact on their reliability or lifetime?
I hope SAAB price this right and get the market they deserve. 1000km range is a great feature!!
Never gonna happen...NEVS shut down March 2023 and basically liquidated the company.
In addition to laying off 95% of the company, NEVS also lost the rights to SAAB trademarks.
I wish SAAB had never bitten the dust. There was always something special about them. I loved the weirdness of them. They even had a distinctive smell of the leather and other interior bits that I remember from childhood. Sad the Emily won’t ever be mass produced because it sure looks like a promising alternative to a Model S, just with proper Scandinavian flair.
It’s so nice to see Tom again. I remember him from Fifth Gear, nice to see him back again!
Thing that always concerns me about Wheel/Hub motors is the un-sprung mass. Would be nice to have information how this system compares to traditional setup mass wise. are we 10% heavier 100% heavier?
Fantastic car from SAAB, I love the interior design and the body aesthetics. The motor in a wheel thing is absolutely rad.
This is absolutely great ! But quick question . What do you do when you have a flat . Change the entire wheel system or just change the tyre
Great video, glad you gave proper credit to Protean and Porsche! I do wonder why an OEM still hasn't picked this up yet though, I imagine it's just too expensive.
I've been wanting this for lawn mower and tractor applications. It would be sweet to have a 16" front wheel on a riding mower that was electric powered hub motor.
Aptera are using in wheel motors too, seems like such a clever idea
One word for engineers of this car .. BRILLIANT!!!!
how so? for being over complicated junk?
Praise should go to Protean - Saab didn't do anything new with the car
@@ILOVEBACONBOY2018 for uniqueness and putting so much work and effort....i know it's something really new and maybe will cost a lot for it's maintanence but let's see what's future is all about..
@@RaviPrasad-ph3mfit doesn't make sense though- why would you increase the unsprung mass
Funny... NEVS is in fact in liquidation since March this year... The former Saab factory in Sweden has been put into a hibernation plan as NEVS scrabbles to avoid bankruptcy. Of the plant's 340 employees, 320 have been laid off... Its Chinese owner, Evergrande's automobile division, is in deep debt and has been trying to sell their shares... Most likely, NEVS won't survive at all...
With a hub motor, how does that affect changing of a flat tyre?
The wheels are normal wheels, they are bolted to the motors
Love it! The exterior of the car is lacking, but the inside looks nice. I would love to see this tech in Porsche EVs in the future. 600-mile range, and I'd sign on the dotted line.
How long do you think you’ll get the ~450 actual mile range it comes with?
Batteries gonna degrade my guy, not as fast as the child slaves mining that cobalt, but whatever you do you.
@@gamerdrive5565you know theres cobalt free batteries right?
I always wonder why more automakers don't go with in-wheel motors. I know that truck company is having a difficult time, but I think that's more to do with the people than the tech. I think Hub motors could make EV conversions easier too. I can't wait to see more advancements in EV tech. I do miss SAAB also.
Because the motor makes wheels super heavy and super inefficient to turn. Protean has been around for years and years and never got traction.
Plus your coupling heat from the brakes and motor in one assembly. Any type of extended performance driving would effect both.
@@jerryk.1889nice pun
@@joshuasterling2144 I believe regenerative braking can be developed to counter that. I did agree with the earlier response about the increased weight being harder to steer. My question is, we don't have to make track worthy performance machines for the average consumer. 400whp is more than adequate for an everyday sedan. And with the creation of those cars, you'll get more research on making track worthy variants. If we don't legitimately try, then there won't be any future developments.
@@JasonB72481 My specific reference was in the context of sport driving where that aspect of the car plays out less. Other than than I understand what your saying.
Anyone else notice the front "pet" space at 07:36? They even dropped in some doggo clipart 😆
How much unsprung weight do you want? All of it..
Every former SAAB driver knows that they are extremely good cars to drive - and tinker with.
Those wheels have to go on my SAAB 9-5 with a few batteries somewhere and the beautiful (almost not tuned) AERO engine providing range extension at it's most efficient rpm. 😊😊😊
For your reference about what happened to saab:
The story is related to NEVS and two chinese companiee, geely and chery. Geely, the company that bought volvo and lotus, started a R&D centre in Sweden in 2013, and developed the CMA platform (xc40, polestar 2 and a lot of link&co) and SEA archetechture (smart #1, zeekr, ex30, eletre). while CEVT employed former volve engineers and a lot of SAAB employees, the chery bought the brand. It's said that chery produced components for SAABs after 2012 when they bought the brand. As for NEVS, they bought the assets like factories.
So, if you want a saab, buy a volvo/zeekr/polestar.
Saab went EV-only nearly a decade ago. I loved my 9-2X Aero Turbo, but GM ruined them. Glad they are resurfacing once again. Apologies that I've been forced to buy German and Volvo ever since!
Not feeling the NEVS anywhere on the vehicle.
Interesting presentation, but one thing was missing: H>ow do you pronounce 'NEVS'? If it would be 'NEWS' it would not be a problem.
What kind of brand name is "Emily"?
Also having the motors inside the wheels will make it feel like a lorry with all that unsprung mass
The main brand name is NEVS, Emily GT is the model name.
Also, the designer of the motors explained about the unsprung weight.
How I wish someone would buy this and resurrect SAAB. Love their cars
What happens when I get a flat tire or it's time to rotate the tires? Can I take it to a regular service station like Midas, for example, to get the wheels balanced and rotated?
2 words. Unsprung weight.
Didn't you heard the part where he talked about that??
@@jacobitosuperstar You cannot talk away 35kg extra per wheel.
@@jackdoe3889 Exactly!
@@jackdoe3889Yeap.
Better not curb those wheels…..
you still have a normal rim. You would need to destroy the rim to be able to damage the motor. But it is nice of you to try to invent issues where there are none.
Absolutely amazing! Please bring back SAAB 🇸🇪 with this brilliant machine 👍
The longer range derived from battery density or motor efficiency or simply just more battery capacity ?
I do respect and love NEVS for having part of the Saab 9-5s outer design incooperated into the vehicle.
Now if they could convince Saab the airplane manufacturer to cooperate with them to make other vehicles, we might look at the revival of Saab, like a Griffin rising out of the Snow depths of a Cave
removing gears from the mototrs is the one thing ive been thinking that all manufacturers should do. these guys know what they are doing. wish i could work with them this car is a dream project bc of all the efficient engineering gone into it
@realalsenor
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I live in the USA, but would love to buy one of those Saab EVs - any idea of where to get it?