Effect of in-wheel motor suspension system on electric vehicle ride comfort

This paper presents the effect of in-wheel motor (IWM) suspension system on electric vehicle (EV) ride comfort. To analyze the impact on the vehicle ride comfort caused by IWM suspension system, a dynamic model of quarter vehicle is established with the combination of IWM and road surface roughness excitations. The weighted root-mean-square (r.m.s.) acceleration of the vertical vehicle body (awbz) according to the international standard ISO 2631-1 (1997) is selected as an objective function to analyze the effect of IWM suspension system when the road surface and IWM mass conditions change. The study results indicate that the effect of IWM suspension system on the EV ride quality is significant and the value of awbz reduces by 8.6 % in comparison to without IWM suspension system. The IWM suspension system has significantly improved the EV ride quality when the road surface and IWM mass conditions change.