Hyundai missed e-car Ioniq 5 new steering moves – t3n – digital pioneers

Hyundai Ioniq 5 drives sideways thanks to E-corner technology. (Screenshot: Youtube/Hyundai, t3n)

Hyundai has installed the new E-Corner steering technology in an Ioniq 5 prototype. This allows the vehicle to park sideways and drive diagonally. When the first electric cars will come onto the market is unclear.

So far, the so-called E-Corner technology at the South Korean carmaker Hyundai was purely theoretical. Now, for the first time, subsidiary Hyundai Mobis has given a prototype of its electric car Ioniq 5 new steering options.

Hyundai shows the new moves of the specially converted Ioniq 5 in a video. Thanks to the front and rear wheels that can be rotated sideways by up to 90 percent, the electric car can drive sideways (crab mode). This can be extremely helpful, for example, when parking and exiting tight parking spaces.

The so-called zero-turn refers to turning on the spot, and the car equipped with E-Corner technology can do that easily – at least in the video.

Also impressive: The Ioniq 5 can drive diagonally and complete a pivot turn, i.e. rotate around its vertical axis. However, Hyundai points out that the technology is still under development and that the Ioniq 5 is only for demonstration purposes.

In addition to parking and leaving a parking space, the steering moves should also be useful when maneuvering in narrow streets or rough terrain. However, it is questionable whether drivers will ever really exhaust all the possibilities of the technology.

The whole thing works thanks to corner modules that work independently of one another – each consisting of a wheel, an electric motor and brake and steer-by-wire systems. When the module is in operation, the wheels are driven by the normal electric motor, like car picture writes.

According to Hyundai, the E-Corner technology should be suitable for all electrified all-wheel drive models if they have a compatible drive. The manufacturer has not yet revealed when Hyundai will officially offer the module or equip its electric cars with it.

The crabbing, in this case driving diagonally, the Hummer EV e-pickup truck from General Motors has long dominated. This should be useful for locomotion in rough terrain. As well as the possibility of being able to raise the entire vehicle by a few centimeters thanks to adaptive air suspension.