e-AAM is the new venture that will supply the rear electric drive units that will go into the Saab 9-3 replacement vehicle late in 2012. The company is owned one-third by Saab and two-thirds by American Axle and has a whole bunch of (now former) Saab people working in Trollhattan, including Peter Johansson, the father of XWD.
They recently did some testing/drive events at Kinnekulle racetrack and handily for us, they took a video camera.
There’s not a lot you can see in these videos, though the “roller” video is definitely an interesting insight, as is the uphill start in the second video.
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e-AAM e-AWD/Hybrid system with Torque Vectoring. Saab Prototype vehicle on rollers. Electric motor on rear axel powers the vehicle in the event of no grip at front axle. The system has several patents and first customer launch is 2012. Lexus RX450 MY10 with standard electric AWD used as reference.
httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=njo5zBeFtr0
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Electric Torque Vectoring on rear axle gives the vehicle outstanding chassis performance. The system has several patents and first customer launch is 2012.
httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DepKIIvhGKA
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Prototype vehicle on Kinnekulle race track
httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ccF1ULOKZgI
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The comparison with the Lexus (Standard electric AWD ????) is alittle bit like the comparioson of the last gen X-drive vs. the Quattro system, although Quattro is not always Quattro.
After visiting the Lexus site, now I know what they mean with standard electric AWD.
The rear wheel is spinning on the lexus. It is just on the drivers side and cannot be viewed. Since the Lexus unit has no torque vectoring to put torque on the other side with grip, it is effectively useless.
No it’s not. The rear wheels do nothing, not torque output at all.
Red,
The Quatro just needs a touch of left-foot braking. Apparently, Torsen diffs don’t work when one axle has absolutely no traction. Adding just a little bit of drag through the brakes will fix this. I’m sure that Audi is adding this feature to the ESP software as we speak.
This is probably the most exciting thing that’s happening in Trollhattan right now (that’s not a dig at the nighlife there, just saying this is pretty cool 😉 )
I’m trying to work it into a proposal for the Hi-Po Saab. Pretty neat tricks this stuff is capable of.
Open the links in YouTube and look at the suggested links that come up on the page.
What does “e aam” mean in other languages?
VERY INTERESTING !! 🙂
Nice to see Saab developing new advanced technology again!
Notice also (once again) how superior a Saab (any Saab) are aestheticly when driving on the road – especially in an snowy landscape!
I really enjoyed seeing those videos….. I want THAT job!
Probably that system will reduce drivetrain loses of XWD to zero comparing to FWD
Interesting times… 🙂
Now THIS is good!
Lovely to see new things getting developed 🙂 One question though, about the roller test: why the high revs and the rear wheels seems a bit slow in reaction, or I have misunderstood something? What would it look like if you would run the same test compared with a standard 9-3XWD? Now that´s 2 questions, sorry about that 🙂 Anyways, glad to see things happening. Wish I could join the test team on that track 🙂
As you say, it would be interesting to see a comparison with a mechanical AWD-system. As you can see in the video I’ve posted, it seem like some mechanical AWD systems can cope with that and some can’t.
They high revs are only because the front wheels don’t have no resistance, but to tell the rear axle that you want to move forward you have to press the gas pedal. There is no mechanical connection between the front and the rear axle, thus you can’t redistribute the torque from the IC engine to the rear axle through a limited slip differential (the e-LSD from Saab for example).
Maybe in a next development stage the Engine-CU could be used as a kind of LSD between the front (IC-axle) and the rear e-axle. But such a trick can only be done if you (the car OEM) are in charge of the ECU programming. (trionic 9 hybrid ??)
No question in my mind that these kinds of All Wheel Drive Systems are the Future…Now..
Cross Threads…with all the discussions here re: Hi Po…about why the Turbo X didn’t Knock The Ball out of The Park one of the reaons is that the Product Managers of the day (still?) didn’t sufficiently translate that kind of road holding into the engine…
I wonder: Within managerial ranks…is the cultural shift away from FWD still not mature? (case in point: drivetrain choices made of recent 9-5s shipped to Canada…). Wouldn’t say that about the engineering though. After all, isn’t there an AWD ‘Mule’ or 2 sitting in The Shed dating back to the earliest years of this century…? Just hope that in this rush to outsource [“has a whole bunch of (now former) Saab people working in Trollhattan, including Peter Johansson, the father of XWD…”.] we haven’t given up The Jewels.
NTP,
I don’t think that Saab has given away The Jewels. Although the sentence
makes me a little bit nervous.
As far as I understood the whole thing, e-AAM will develop new e-AWD system that will be used in Saab cars first, but then again Saab has to sell some of those to other companies to finance new Saab products.
I think it is much easier if you sell parts as a Tier-1 supplier (e-AAM) as an OEM (Saab Automobile AB).
But as I’ve said, 2012 could be the NG 9-3 but it could also be somebody else.
That is quite simply AMAZING! soon Saab will be competing with Landrover! I love the fact that Saab are starting to be very capable in areas where most drivers would plump for a true 4×4-that’s pretty cool.
Hey…I’m sorry…but these folks are having just too much fun to be working hard.
Where does one sign up for this job anyway? Hmmm? 😉
Unrelated question:
E24 news in Sweden says that BWM engines (notice plural) will be used in the new 9-3.
Is that true? Are they going to buy more than just the 1.6t from BMW?
.. … hhhhmmmmmmmmmmm, what other engines could that be? Dielsels are looking ripe in Bavaria this time of year…………? 😉
Great
Exciting with new technology from Saab! I think I have read that this system will be released with the Saab 9-3 successor in 2012. 🙂
I would say that the really big benefit from this system is that the ICE and the electric axle has n other connection then purely electrical. This means that it is relatively easy to hybridize ANY car. As of now cars like Toyota Prius has complex systems connecting the ICE with the electric engine by using planetary gears and tuning the engines to work together. I would also like to say that it is impossible to see any difference and benefits of this AWD system by just looking at the videos that are provided above. I mean the reference vehicle at standstill does show some significant difference in behavior, but the improvement as the vehicle goes around the track is, I would say, unknown. I really hope that the eAWD will come in production soon, and I think it will be good considering the handling and performance, but you can’t tell from these videos.
Is this the hybrid set-up or is it an electric AWD set-up? If it is the eAWD set-up, what happens when the battery is depleted, no AWD?
Great movies, interesting to follow how well this technology matches the Haldex XWD. Would be nice to see the two systems head on head.
Trustworthy sources whispers about what we have talked about for some time, major revamp of the infotainment/communication systems.
Maybe shown in Geneva…..
– Sharp “dual screen”. Driver gets a view and the passenger gets another view from the same screen. So the passenger can watch a movie while the driver does the driving?
– WIFI network within the car?
– Short-range wideband communications system allowing to communicate with other Saabs?
– Eye-tracking device for detecting drowsiness?
Wishful thinking:
Full Apple integration?
– Reconfigurable instrumentation, new level of personalization. Big screen where the driver decides on what information to be shown.
One car… One engine… Two cars two engines….. Those two cares will use the same engine type.. But use BMW engines.. Right?
This was an answer to Victor. :/