Toyota shows off future 4WD tech for EVs

Toyota has pulled the drapes off its next-generation chassis and all-wheel drive technology that reveals its future battery-electric cars will be able to mimic the big GMC Hummer EV’s CrabWalk.

Developed by the Toyota Research Institute (TRI), the new Global Research Innovation Platform (GRIP) incorporates the car-making giant’s latest chassis technology that includes its upcoming four-wheel steer hardware.

Capable of mimicking regular four-wheel steer systems, the new GRIP tech can also turn the front and rear wheels in the same direction to allow the ‘CrabWalk’ that enables the vehicle to drive diagonally, helping utes and SUVs with long wheelbases navigate sharp turns on a trail.

Perhaps more relevant to those who live in urban environments, where most Toyota EVs will live, the GRIP prototype rig uses advanced in-hub axial flux motors rather than the more traditional cylindrical radial flux motors.

The new powertrain concept has huge implications for future Toyotas. As well as far superior packaging, they offer far better torque vectoring than current tech while bringing efficiency gains.

They also allow a dramatic ‘tank turn’ on looser surfaces and enable the GRIP prototype to pull off lurid drifts, as demonstrated at an exhibition in Japan.

As well as all the shiny new hardware on the GRIP prototype, some of the key developments not easily demonstrated include new software and faster-acting chassis computers that work behind the scenes.

If you’re wondering why the prototype itself looks more like a supermarket trolley than a real car, the skateboard chassis and bolt-on cage allow TRI engineers to switch out components far quicker than a conventional development mule.

TRI has not revealed when its new tech will transition to production models, but it’s unlikely the pioneering axial flux in-hub motors could be retrofitted to any of its vehicles sitting on the current e-TNGA architecture.

Instead, Toyota could follow in the tyre tracks of the Mercedes-Benz EQG and fit the tech to a vehicle with a ladder-frame chassis, with an all-electric next-gen Toyota HiLux an ideal candidate for the more advanced motors.

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