ELECTRIC DRIVE SYSTEM FOR A MOTOR VEHICLE

Abstract

A motor vehicle electric drive system includes first and second electric machines, arranged coaxial to each other and respectively having first and second rotors, a differential gear having a differential input shaft and a first and second differential output shafts arranged coaxially to the first rotor. A transmission stage has a transmission input shaft and a transmission output shaft. The transmission output shaft is connected in a rotationally fixed manner with the differential input shaft. A first switching element couples the first rotor in a rotationally fixed manner with the first differential output shaft. A second switching element couples the second rotor in a rotationally fixed manner with the second differential output shaft. A third switching element couples the first rotor in a rotationally fixed manner with the differential input shaft. A fourth switching element couples the second rotor in a rotationally fixed manner with the transmission input shaft.

Claims

1-12. (canceled)

13. An electric drive system for a motor vehicle, the electric drive system comprising: a first electric machine having a first rotor; a differential gear having a differential input shaft, a first differential output shaft, and a second differential output shaft, wherein the first and second differential output shafts are arranged coaxially to the first rotor; a transmission stage having a transmission input shaft and a transmission output shaft, wherein the transmission output shaft is connected in a rotationally fixed manner with the differential input shaft; a second electric machine having a second rotor; a first switching element configured to couple the first rotor with the first differential output shaft in a rotationally fixed manner; a second switching element configured to couple the second rotor with the second differential output shaft in a rotationally fixed manner; and a third switching element configured to couple the first rotor with the differential input shaft in a rotationally fixed manner, wherein the transmission stage has a planetary gear set with a first element, a second element, and a third element, wherein the third element is connected with a housing in a rotationally fixed manner, the second element is connected with the transmission output shaft in a rotationally fixed manner, and the first element is connected with the transmission input shaft in a rotationally fixed manner.

14. The electric drive system of claim 13, further comprising: a fourth switching element configured to couple the second rotor with the transmission input shaft in a rotationally fixed manner.

15. The electric drive system of claim 14, wherein the transmission stage is arranged at least partially axially overlapping the differential gear.

16. The electric drive system of claim 15, wherein the fourth switching element is arranged at least partially axially overlapping the differential gear.

17. The electric drive system of claim 13, wherein the second switching element is arranged at least partially axially overlapping the differential gear.

18. The electric drive system of claim 13, wherein the third switching element is arranged at least partially overlapping the differential gear.

19. The electric drive system of claim 13, wherein the first switching element is arranged at least partially axially overlapping the differential gear.

20. The electric drive system of claim 13, wherein the differential gear is formed as a bevel gear differential with a differential cage.

21. The electric drive system of claim 13, wherein the differential gear is formed as planetary differential with a sun gear, an internal gear, and a double planetary carrier, wherein the differential input shaft is connected with the internal gear in a rotationally fixed manner, the first differential output shaft is connected with the double planetary carrier in a rotationally fixed manner, and the second differential output shaft is connected with the sun gear in a rotationally fixed manner.

22. The electric drive system of claim 13, wherein the first and second differential output shafts are each connected with at least one driven wheel via a respective transmission.

23. The electric drive system of claim 13, wherein at least one of the first and second electric machines is an axial flux machine.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING FIGURES

[0023] Shown here are:

[0024] FIG. 1 a first possible exemplary embodiment of an electric drive system according to the invention;

[0025] FIG. 2 a second possible exemplary embodiment of an electric drive system according to the invention; and

[0026] FIG. 3 a third possible exemplary embodiment of an electric drive system according to the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0027] FIG. 1 illustrates a first possible embodiment of an electric drive system 1. This electric drive system 1 serves to drive a motor vehicle and can provide drive power for two driven wheels 2, this being indicted here by the arrows. The electric drive system 1 is equipped with a first electric machine 3 and a second electric machine 4, which, for example, can be axial flux machines. The first electric machine 3 comprises a stator 5 fixed to the housing and a first rotor 6, and the second electric machine 4 accordingly comprises a stator 7 fixed to the housing and a second rotor 8. The two electric machines 3, 4, more specifically the two rotors 6, 8 thereof, are thus arranged coaxially to a rotational axis formed here by the lower boundary of the illustration in FIG. 1, as the illustration in FIG. 1 only illustrates the upper half of the otherwise rotationally symmetrical design. This rotational axis of the two rotors 6, 8 simultaneously defines an axial direction a of the electric drive system 1. A radial direction r, which is shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, is perpendicular to it.

[0028] Along with the two electric machines 3, 4, the electric drive system 1 furthermore comprises a differential gear 9 as well as a transmission stage 10.

[0029] The differential gear 9 and the transmission stage 10 are also arranged coaxially to the rotational axis of the rotors 6, 8.

[0030] The differential gear 9 is formed here in the illustration of FIG. 1 by way of example as a planetary differential and comprises a sun gear 11, an internal gear 12 and a double planetary carrier 13 with the corresponding planet gears (not explicitly provided here with a reference number). A differential input shaft 14 is connected with the internal gear 12 in a rotationally fixed manner. A first differential output shaft 15 is connected with the double planetary carrier 13 in a rotationally fixed manner, and the sun gear 11 is connected with a second differential output shaft 16 in a rotationally fixed manner. The two differential output shafts 15, 16 are connected in the illustrated exemplary embodiment with the respective driven wheel 2 via a respective transmission ratio 17. The differential input shaft 14 is now further connected with a transmission output shaft 18 of the transmission stage 10. The transmission stage 10 is preferably, as illustrated here, formed as a planetary gear set, in the case of which, in the illustration of FIG. 1, the planetary carrier 19, which could also be a double planetary carrier, is coupled with the transmission output shaft 18 and thus with the differential input shaft 14 in a rotationally fixed manner. An internal gear 20 of the transmission stage 10 is connected with the housing 28 in a rotationally fixed manner, a sun gear 21 of the transmission stage 10 can be connected with the second rotor 8 via a transmission input shaft 26.

[0031] A design having a first switching element SE1 and a third switching element SE3 can now be seen in the axial direction a between the first electric machine 3 and the differential gear 9. This design corresponds essentially to the design having a second switching element SE2 and a fourth switching element SE4, the design being located in the axial direction a between the transmission stage 10 and the second electric machine 4. The first electric machine 3 or its rotor 6 can now be connected with the first differential output shaft 15, which could also be referred to as a side shaft or merges into such in a rotationally fixed manner, via the first switching element SE1. Accordingly, the second electric machine 4 or its rotor 8 can be connected with the second differential output shaft 16 or side shaft via the second switching element SE2. Therefore, a single wheel drive can be realized with torque vectoring, by which the first electric machine 3 drives the one driven wheel 2 and the second electric machine 4 drives the other driven wheel 2 independent from the respective other wheels. The first electric machine 3 or its rotor 6 can now be coupled with the differential input shaft 14 in a rotationally fixed manner via the third switching element SE3. The first electric machine 3 then drives, for example alone or supported by the second electric machine 4, the two differential output shafts 15, 16 directly and thus the wheels 2 via the two transmission ratios 17.

[0032] The first switching element SE1 and the third switching element SE3 are thus formed in such a way that they can also completely decouple the first electric machine 3. In this mode, a connection can be achieved between the second rotor 8 of the second electric machine 4 and the differential input shaft 14 via the transmission stage 10 by coupling the fourth switching element SE4. The second electric machine 4 then drives the two differential output shafts 15, 16 and thus the wheels 2 with the corresponding transmission ratio via the transmission stage 10.

[0033] The second electric machine 4 can likewise be decoupled via the second and fourth switching element SE2, SE4, such that in this differential operation with a typically even distribution of the drive power on the two differential output shafts 15, 16, efficient operation is possible both with the first electric machine 3, with the second electric machine 4 decoupled, or vice versa with the second electric machine 4, via the transmission stage 10 with the first electric machine 3 decoupled. Furthermore, a torque mode for providing higher torques is possible, in which the two electric machines 3, 4 drive the differential input shaft 14, the first electric machine 3 directly and the second electric machine 4 via the transmission stage 10.

[0034] As an alterantive, to the design illustrated in FIG. 1, other connections could also be implemented in the area of the transmission stage 10. For example, the planetary carrier 19, which can also be formed as a double planetary carrier, could be immobilized relative to the housing 28, instead of coupling the transmission output shaft 18 with the internal gear 20 in a rotationally fixed manner, such that this drives the differential input shaft 14 whilst a transmission input shaft 26 is still coupled with the sun gear 21. A further alternative could also provide for immobilizing the sun gear 21 on the housing and then, for example, coupling the transmission input shaft 26 with the internal gear 20 in a rotationally fixed manner and the transmission output shaft 18 in turn via the planetary carrier 19. These two elements could also be reversed again, such that the planetary carrier 19 would be coupled to the transmission input shaft 26 and the internal gear 20 would be coupled to the transmission output shaft 18 again accordingly.

[0035] In addition to this design of the electric drive system 1 with a planetary differential 9, a design in which the differential gear 9 is designed as a bevel gear differential would also be conceivable. In the illustration in FIG. 2, a corresponding design is shown. The design otherwise corresponds to what has already been described such that the following text only discusses the differences in more detail. The differential gear 9 is formed as a bevel gear, so that a differential cage 27 is driven by the differential input shaft 14, which cage drives bevel gears connected to it, which gears drive the differential output shafts 15, 16 via other bevel gears. In the illustration in FIG. 2, the two transmission ratios 17 are only indicated schematically. These could also, as designed in the illustration in FIG. 1, be formed as planetary gear sets, or alternatively as a spur gear or similar. In principle, alternatives would be conceivable here, both with the design of the electric drive system 1 in FIG. 2 as well as that in FIG. 1, for example chains, belts, or different gear elements for the transmission ratios 17.

[0036] The two electric machines 3, 4 are constructed in a comparable manner, as in the illustration of the electric drive system 1 in FIG. 1, as are the switching elements SE1 to SE4. In contrast to the illustration in FIG. 1, in which the differential gear 9 and the transmission stage 10 were arranged next to each other in the axial direction a, the differential gear 9 and the transmission stage 10, in the design illustrated in FIG. 2, are now arranged overlapping each other in the axial direction. The transmission stage 10, which is formed again here purely exemplarily as a planetary gear set, is located axially overlapping the differential cage 27, such that they share at least one common plane, perpendicular to the axial direction a. In the radial direction r, the transmission stage 10 is thus arranged outside of the differential cage 27. Alternatives could also be implemented for the transmission stage 10, for example the alternatives described in the context of FIG. 1 for the interconnection of the individual elements 19, 20, 21 and the transmission stage 10, which is designed as a planetary gear set. Alternatively, both here and in the design already described in FIG. 1, it would be conceivable to realize the transmission stage 10 in a different way, for example as a spur gear stage, chain drive, belt drive or similar.

[0037] With regards to the interconnection between the individual modes using the switching elements SE1 to SE4, the above also applies here. The switching elements SE1 to SE4 could respectively be designed as positive locking elements, which accordingly also applies for the design of the electric drive system 1 in FIG. 1. Between the individual modes, in which the power is distributed onto the two driven wheels 2 via the differential gear 9, a switching without interrupting the tractive load is then still possible, as the necessary adjustments/supports can be made with regards to the rotational speed and/or the power flow via the two electric machines 3, 4. The very simple and efficient positive locking elements as switching elements SE1 to SE4 enable such a very efficient and wear-free design. Only with switching into the single wheel drive in the torque vectoring mode, in which the first electric machine 3 drives the first differential output shaft 15 and the second electric machine 4 drives the second differential output shaft 16, in which the first switching element SE1 and the second switching element SE2 are accordingly closed, would a tractive force interruption then would be necessary.

[0038] In the illustration of FIG. 3, a further alternative to the design described in FIG. 2 is now shown. This alternative differs in that the arrangement of the second switching element SE2 and the fourth switching element SE4 is shifted from the position arranged axially between the differential gear 9 and the second electric machine 4, such that the second switching element SE2 and the fourth switching element SE4 are now arranged axially overlapping the differential gear 9, in this case in particular its differential cage 27, in a similar way to the transmission stage 10.

[0039] Alternatively, or, in principle, additionally, the first switching element SE1 and the third switching element SE3 could also be moved to such a position axially overlapping the differential gear 9, which could be done as an alternative or in addition to an arrangement of the transmission stage 10 axially overlapping the differential gear 9.

[0040] Although the invention has been illustrated and described in detail by way of preferred embodiments, the invention is not limited by the examples disclosed, and other variations can be derived from these by the person skilled in the art without leaving the scope of the invention. It is therefore clear that there is a plurality of possible variations. It is also clear that embodiments stated by way of example are only really examples that are not to be seen as limiting the scope, application possibilities or configuration of the invention in any way. In fact, the preceding description and the description of the figures enable the person skilled in the art to implement the exemplary embodiments in concrete manner, wherein, with the knowledge of the disclosed inventive concept, the person skilled in the art is able to undertake various changes, for example, with regard to the functioning or arrangement of individual elements stated in an exemplary embodiment without leaving the scope of the invention, which is defined by the claims and their legal equivalents, such as further explanations in the description.