Lucid Motors has introduced that it really is producing a new motorsports push device (MDU) for what it phone calls “the world’s major one-seater electric racing sequence.” For causes unidentified to us at the instant, Lucid doesn’t use the title System E when talking of its motorsport accomplishments. Due to the fact there is certainly only one “foremost single-seater electric racing series,” we are indeed conversing about the entrance motor used in the Gen 3 Formulation E cars and trucks introduced for this year at the opening race in Mexico. Right up until this year, FE autos only utilized a 200-kilowatt motor on the rear axle to flip the rear wheels. The Gen 3 vehicles have included Lucid’s front-mounted device. Irrespective of the use of the word “generate,” the device would not drive the front wheels — it truly is utilised as a generator feeding up to 250 kW of regen braking energy to the process. Put together with a rear generate device upgraded to 350 kW, the Gen 3 vehicles boast 600 kW of energy opportunity.
Lucid made the unit in-home, its compact scenario made up of the motor, inverter, differential and transmission. The complete kaboodle weighs 32 kilograms (70.5 lbs .) and can produce 469 horsepower, offering it a ability density of 14.7 hp/kg. Which is the same max horsepower created by the rear travel motors that each individual of the manufacturers in the collection can pick out to make for themselves or purchase. So, of course, a crew could buy Lucid’s MDU and adhere it at the again as well, just like Venturi Racing applied to market its FE powertrains to Dragon Racing and Mercedes-Benz. At the front, nonetheless, the unit’s restricted to that 250-kW electrical power generation, or 268 horsepower.
Automaker CEO Peter Rawlinson reported “the new motorsports generate device builds upon powertrain know-how created in-dwelling by Lucid and demonstrated on the highway in every Lucid Air,” reversing the normal tout about placing race technologies on the road. The MDU employs the substantial-voltage continual wave winding and microjet cooling tech as the motors in the generation Air. Rawlinson also hinted about the probability “some of the technical breakthroughs launched may make their way to long run Lucid road vehicles.”
The race-highway line is nearly as blurred at Lucid as it is at Porsche or Ferrari, though. Lucid commenced as a corporation identified as Atieva, started by ex-Tesla VP Bernard Tse with entrepreneur and trader Sam Weng in 2007, focused on battery application and packs. Atieva rebranded to Lucid in 2016, the Atieva name being utilized for Lucid’s technological know-how arm. Rawlinson came on as Lucid’s CEO and CTO in 2019, replacing Weng, when Tse stays the CEO of Atieva. The official name of the entrance travel device provider is Atieva. Bought all that?
More importantly, the new MDU information implies Lucid has swapped its supplier standing with FE. Lucid labored with McLaren Applied Technologies and Sony to deliver the 54-kW battery packs for the Gen 2 Formula E cars that enabled the autos to run a full race length beginning in 2018, and Lucid says, “You are going to find the exact same race-tested technological innovation from Atieva in your Lucid Air, much too.” So the Air has always been a very little bit racy, now Components E is obtaining a tiny bit Air-y.
We’ll discover out just how racy the current Air sedan can be when the Air Sapphire begins deliveries later on this year. It would be a shame if unbiased EV restomod outfits could not get this new MDU in their personal builds as well.
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