There’s something wonderfully audacious about the idea of reinventing the wheel. But that’s precisely what Deepdrive — a Munich-based electric motor start-up — is doing. And, just to really annoy Isaac Newton, they’re putting the engine inside it.

Yes, in-wheel motors. That mad, once-dismissed idea that turns each corner of your car into its own self-propelled power unit. It’s been tried before — usually resulting in too much weight, too much complexity, and not nearly enough range. But Deepdrive’s seven-strong team of ex-Formula Student engineers think they’ve cracked it. And after a few hot laps around the Salzburgring in some heavily disguised Tesla and Volvo prototypes, it’s hard not to believe them.

Efficiency That Actually Means Something

Deepdrive claims its motors can make EVs up to 20 percent more efficient. Not a bad boast in a world where manufacturers trip over themselves for a one-percent gain. Chief engineer and co-founder Alex Rosen says the trick lies in trimming the fat — or rather, the friction.

“When we started, conventional EV drivetrains were losing about 40% of their energy to heat and transmission losses,” Rosen explains. “Now it’s closer to 25%, but that still leaves us a huge margin to work with.”

With an electric motor tucked neatly inside each wheel, there’s no need for driveshafts, differentials or heavy gearboxes. What you get instead is beautifully direct power delivery, ultra-precise torque vectoring, and — because every wheel can act independently — the sort of handling wizardry that’d make a rally engineer blush.

The Space Race

But efficiency is only half the story. Deepdrive’s tech could change how cars look.

Without the bulky central motor or axles to package around, designers suddenly have a blank canvas. Shorter overhangs, lower floors, more cabin space — Rosen calls it “never-seen proportions.” Imagine a supermini with limo legroom, or a low-slung GT with the interior volume of a family hatch.

It’s the kind of design freedom carmakers dream of but rarely get. And the big players are watching. Deepdrive has already attracted €50 million from BMW and Volkswagen, both quietly keen to see if these bright young minds can out-innovate their own R&D departments.

From Student Dream to Industry Disruptor

The Deepdrive story reads like a Silicon Valley fairy tale — except with more pretzels and fewer hoodies. The founders met while building race cars for their university’s Formula Student team in Munich. After graduation, they scattered into Germany’s industrial giants, where they quickly became frustrated by “big company inertia.”

So, in 2021, they jumped ship, pooled their know-how, and set out to prove that in-wheel drive wasn’t a dead end.

“Developing in-wheel motors was our original big idea,” Rosen says. “Everyone said it couldn’t be done economically, but we were obsessed.”

Fast-forward four years, and their obsession has turned into something real — something that’s now thundering around a racetrack near Salzburg under a pair of familiar Swedish and Californian badges.

The Double-Rotor Disruptor

Of course, Deepdrive isn’t stopping there. Their latest project is a dual-rotor electric motor that’s lighter, cheaper and more compact than traditional single-rotor units.

Think of it as the halfway house between conventional EV powertrains and the full in-wheel revolution — ideal for manufacturers not yet ready to ditch the driveshaft. It saves on copper, iron and magnets, which in EV-land translates directly to fewer costs and fewer headaches for supply chains. BMW has already been experimenting with it, and Continental is reportedly sniffing around too.

So, What’s Next?

Deepdrive plans to scale up for small-series car production by 2028. If that sounds ambitious, that’s because it is — but ambition is what got them here in the first place.

There’s still plenty to prove: long-term durability, ride comfort, cost, and how all that cleverness handles real-world potholes. But if Rosen and his team are right, the next big leap in EV tech won’t come from battery chemistry or charging infrastructure.

It’ll come from the wheel itself.

And that, dear reader, might just be the most exciting thing to happen to the automobile since someone first bolted an engine to a cart and decided to go for a drive.

Source: Deepdrive