From mild efforts like fancy noises to wild ideas like simulated gearshifts and clutch pedals, automakers are taking some extreme measures to try to make their electric vehicles more appealing to die-hard, gas-loving enthusiasts. But CarBuzz has just found a patent from Ferrari that might beat them all. In fact, it might be the worst idea we’ve ever come across in a patent.
We’ll just say this right up front. Someone at Ferrari thinks stacking electric motors in a V layout is a neat idea, or at least, neat enough to file a patent on it. Of course,
If You Can’t Make A Gas V8, Why Not An Electric One?
Ferrari E-V MotorFerrari
As Ferrari points out in the patent, electric motors have a serious performance advantage over gas engines. A pair of motors making 1,000 horsepower in a street car is almost nothing these days. Ferrari can’t make a gas production engine that matches it. The problem, as Ferrari puts it, is that “despite the performance advantages mentioned above, some people consider today’s electric cars unattractive.” It’s worth noting this filing was made long before the Luce was revealed.
The reason, Ferrari says, is “because they lack personality compared to cars with a multi-cylinder internal combustion engine.” It says the problem is worse in mid-engine cars, because while you should be able to see an engine, you can’t. And there’s nowhere to put a red crackle-finish cover on an electric car’s motors.
So Ferrari wants to fix it by building a V-layout made up of electric motors. It doesn’t have a name for the new configuration, so for simplicity’s sake, we’ll just call it the EV8 – with apologies to Kia.
The EV8 would have an engine block, or at least a large and strong metal structure that looks like an engine block. In the space that would normally occupy a cylinder with a piston, Ferrari would install an electric motor. It would appear to be something that it is not.
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All eight of the motors – there could be more or fewer depending on the vehicle – send their torque down to where the crankshaft would normally be. There, the motor shaft would be linked to a large gear. Each “cylinder” would have its own gear, and they would be linked together. At one end, there would be a pinion gear and a ring gear. A tiny differential. It wouldn’t need the complexity of spider gears, but it’s the same idea.
The motors turn a shaft through those gears. The shaft is attached to a drive shaft, which is attached to a rear differential like it would be in any other gas car.
Like Many Ferraris, It’s All About The Look
Ferrari E-V MotorFerrari
Ferrari’s intent is almost entirely cosmetic. It wants something that looks like a V8 from the outside: instead of spark plug wires, it would have high-voltage cables, and instead of a distributor, it would have an inverter or some other electric control module. The design, Ferrari says, would look like an engine.
The engine block would serve at least one useful purpose. Ferrari proposes circulating coolant through the block just like it would in a gas engine, in order to keep the motors at an appropriate temperature. But, if you consider the simplicity and capability of even a single-motor EV, never mind a quad-motor EV with a motor directly turning each wheel, this seems extremely complicated for something largely aesthetic.
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We’ve recently covered multiple patents from Ferrari designed to bring an ICE experience to its EVs. These include fake clutch pedals, a gated shifter that doesn’t require a transmission, and others. This one, though, is the wildest. It’s right up there with Ferrari’s idea to position the wipers on the Luce pointing down instead of up.
CarBuzz Insight – Why This Matters:
Ferrari LuceFerrari
This invention is less efficient, heavier, and more complex than either a gas car or an EV. Enzo Ferrari would have hated it. But if the only thing stopping you from making the switch to electric is what you see when you open the hood, well, Ferrari has an idea. Whether it comes to life, however, is a completely different story.
Patent filings do not guarantee the use of such technology in future vehicles and are often used exclusively as a means of protecting intellectual property. Such a filing cannot be construed as confirmation of production intent.
Source: US Patent & Trademark Office
