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Environmental issues caused by global warming, limited resources as well as future binding CO2 targets are pushing for low carbon technology. In this respect electrification and hybridisation has gained impressive momentum and will become a leading technology for future road vehicles. A significant market share of up to 10% of the total vehicle market is expected within 10 to 15 years time. Technology for EV&HEV transmission is based on conventional manual/automatic transmissions and geared components for AWD-systems, but has to be extended and adapted to meet the needs of electric drive systems. Major development challenges like e-motor/gearbox interface, e- motor integration, high input speed, high efficiency and park lock or disconnect features will be presented in this paper. The paper will describe in more details a newly developed eDrive transmission with disconnect feature for a hybrid AWD system. This hybrid concept combines hybrid, EV and AWD function in a beneficial way.

Under normal conditions, on high friction surfaces such as tarmac or concrete, a single driving axle (front or rear) is more than adequate. The traction potential of the tires generally exceeds the torque applied. However, on low friction surfaces, such as ice, snow or wet roads, and in off-road conditions the traction potential of the wheels can be easily exceeded. In these circumstances the improved traction provided by four-wheel drive is most noticeable. This study concerns the optimization of the recently developed Visco-Lok limited-slip differential and coupling for use in four-wheel drive vehicles. In addition to the traction improvement, the influence on the vehicle handling and stability was investigated.