Surrey team to improve torque vectoring in EVs

Developed as part of the EU’s STEVE project to deliver new concepts in urban mobility, the Surrey team’s method is suitable for implementation in everyday consumer EVs and aims to solve impracticalities in traditional torque vectoring approaches.

Torque vectoring allows different amounts of drive power to be delivered to each wheel, improving the vehicle’s power consumption, safety and control. 

Professor Aldo Sorniotti, head of the Centre for Automotive Engineering at Surrey University explained how multiple drive motors and torque vectoring techniques can allow for ‘always-on’ stability control systems, as opposed to a conventional stability system which only becomes activated when a vehicle is braking hard.

“As a consequence, you can use these new drive controls not just for emergency conditions but to support a wider range of objectives such as driveability, active safety measures, reduction in energy usage and so on,” Sorniotti said. “The problem is, delivering this capability is very complex, requiring significant computer power and sophisticated algorithms that can balance all these competing factors in a way that keeps the car safe and fun to drive.”