Scientists are developing a new assisted steering concept for electric vehicles. In conventional vehicles, the internal combustion engine not only accelerates the car, but also supplies onboard assist systems with energy, such as the assisted steering system, which reduces the strain on the driver at the wheel. In electric vehicles, this energy comes from the battery, and also reduces the range as a result. In this case, the steering system is assisted in an energy-efficient manner by intelligent control of the drive torques transmitted to the individual wheels.

New drive and steering concepts for electric cars are tested with a scale model demonstrator (Photo: KIT/ M. Breig)

The wheels in an electric car will be driven individually by electric motors in contrast to a car with an internal combustion engine where all the wheels are provided with equal force. If the wheels on the left side transmit more drive torque to the road than those on the right side, this will result in acceleration of the vehicle to the right without the need to turn the front wheels or consume additional energy for steering.

As part of the project, functional demonstrators are being built, with which the concepts can be validated and optimized in experiments.

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