The electric motor, along with advanced electronics from home computers and elsewhere, are adding new dimensions to the automobile.
New features headed to showrooms starting this year would have been part of wild concept cars just a few years ago.
Here’s a look at a few of the industry-first innovations making their debuts.
General Motors
Vehicle: GMC Hummer EV pickup
What: Crabwalk
How it works: At low speeds, the rear wheels steer up to 10 degrees in the same direction as the front wheels. That enables the Hummer EV to maneuver diagonally through extremely tight spots. Four-wheel steering can also be used to reduce a vehicle’s turning radius. For that, the rear wheels would need to steer in the opposite direction from the front wheels. GMC isn’t saying whether the new Hummer EV has that capability, but it is a good bet that it does.
Volvo
Vehicle: Polestar 2 five-door hatchback
What: Android Automotive operating system with Google Assistant
How it works: The platform that operates the car’s functions — infotainment, navigation, climate, phone, etc. — is designed to operate as seamlessly as a smartphone. No more thumbing through layers of submenus to change radio stations or turn on the seat heaters. The driver can operate the system by simply saying, “Hey, Google” or “OK, Google” and issuing a command such as “Turn on the defroster.” Beyond that, if a customer has Google Home or Alexa, the driver can do such things as turn on the lights in the garage or preheat the house with voice commands made from the vehicle.
Rivian
Vehicles: R1T pickup and R1S SUV
What: Tank turn
How it works: On slick surfaces such as loose dirt, snow and wet grass, Rivian vehicles with the four-motor option can turn in a perfect circle without moving forward or backward more than a few inches. The wheels on the left side spin in the opposite direction from the wheels on the right side. And the front and rear wheels on both sides spin at different speeds. This enables the R1T and R1S to turn in place and change directions.
Bollinger Motors
Vehicle: B1 pickup, B2 utility vehicle
What: Passthrough and Frunkgate
How THEY work: Bollinger’s pickup and SUV have flat floors from the front bumper to the rear bumper because the battery pack and electric drivetrain are mounted underneath. This opens up storage space, and Bollinger engineers designed a patented system that creates a stowage area in the center that runs 13 feet in the B1 truck and 16 feet in the B2 utility vehicle. The Frunkgate is essentially a tailgate, but at the front of the vehicle. Long items such as lumber can be loaded in the vehicle from the front.
Lucid Motors
Vehicle: Air sedan
What: Bidirectional charging
How it works: Power flows to today’s EVs in just one direction: from the grid to the vehicle’s on-board charger and then into the battery pack. As electricity passes through the charger it is converted from AC to DC power. The Air has a device dubbed “the wonderbox” that contains the vehicle’s power electronics and software and a converter that changes electricity from DC back to AC. The Air, when used with Lucid’s planned wall box, can power a home, perhaps replacing a gasoline generator. Also, with the proper charging cord adapters, the Air can be plugged into other electric vehicles to recharge dead battery packs.
Lordstown Motors
Vehicle: Endurance pickup
What: Wheel hub motors
How it works: The Endurance pickup has a unique drivetrain layout for a regular production vehicle: electric motors in each of the wheels. Wheel hub motors are not new, but because of their heavy weight, cooling and sealing issues, they have not been used in consumer vehicles. The attraction of wheel hub motors is simplicity. Each motor has just one moving part — the rotor. The motor’s torque is applied directly to each wheel, so frictional losses are almost completely eliminated. The Endurance is a four-wheel-drive truck with regenerative braking in the wheels.