EVs To Become Interesting With Hyundai’s Crab Walk

Electric vehicles allow for better flexibility in terms of power plant placement. Unlike internal combustion engines, which are large and bulky, electric motors are simpler and far more compact. These attributes are why they come in various shapes and sizes.

Many EV makers mount them under the bonnet like traditional internal combustion engines (ICE), but some others construct them on the wheels themselves. And this can allow Hyundai Mobis to build cars that offer more flexible turning solutions to improve the task of meandering around a fully filled parking lot.

The Korean automaker has developed an e-cornering system using a Hyundai Ioniq 5 that allows all four wheels to turn in various orientations to help point the car in the right direction. There are three different wheel placements to know: crab driving, zero turn and pivot turn.

Crab driving allows all four wheels to turn inwards by 90-degrees, which allows the car to move sideways like how crabs do, hence the term. This could be a Godsend for challenging parallel parking scenarios, where gaps between two vehicles are unreasonably small.

Zero turn, make the front wheels turn inward while the rear ones turn outward. This allows the car to make 360-degree idle turns without needing to engage reverse motion. Such a maneuver can allow drivers to exit a dead end without much hassle, therefore reducing congestion.

Pivot turn allows the rear wheels to turn outward, which allows the car to rotate on its axis. This allows for positioning for either front or reverse parking. It’s an ideal method for getting into perpendicular parking spaces.

This technology has been around for quite a while, but Hyundai Mobis has perfected the art of crab-like wheel movements. Since its introduction last year, it has made waves due to how easy it makes the process of maneuvering one’s car.

EVs can fully utilize this technology to make the parking process more bearable for those of us who live in the city. It could help shave 30 to 45 seconds off the time needed to carefully position a vehicle safely within a parking space, thus reducing congestion that usually occurs inside a parking lot.