The Rivian R1T truck made headlines around the world when it was originally launched, thanks to its specs. Furthermore, the electric pick-up could do a ‘tank turn’ which was something no other car was capable of doing up until then. These days though, that may change, as a company from Slovenia proved earlier this year, using a BMW X6. Their products allow any car to be transformed into a tank of sorts, thanks to the electric motors located inside the wheels.
Elaphne Propulsion has mounted four of its Elaphe L1500 gearless electric motors on each wheel, giving this first-generation BMW X6 a completely different setup that it was supposed to have. By doing this and by using proprietary software for the wheels, the guys from Slovenia managed to get it to spin just like a tank would, by controlling the way each wheel moves, independently.
According to them, this setup offers the car 590 HP and 4,425 lb-ft (6,000 Nm) of torque.
That’s a lot of twist and it makes itself noticed if you take a look at how fast the car is spinning in the demonstration the company set up for us. However, that’s not the only thing provided by the four electric motors. They can also push the 5,300 lbs (2.4 tons) car up 62 mph from standstill in less than 4.9 seconds. It’s not that fast, when you think about the torque those electric motors should be delivering, but it’s not slow either.
Unfortunately, this is just a demo car, so you can’t actually go and buy it or the electric motors alone, to make one such car yourself. Nevertheless, this kind of tech is interesting and it will be worth a look over in the next few years, to see how it evolves. In the meantime, let’s have some puke-inducing fun on the snow.
