Continental has agreed with Munich based tech company DeepDrive to develop technology for electric vehicles.

The companies would initially jointly develop a combined unit comprising drive and brake components for mounting directly on the vehicle wheel.

DeepDrive has developed and patented a dual rotor, radial flux motor which can be installed as a central drive unit or as a wheel hub drive.

Continental would contribute brake components and said the motor would be road-ready with brake technology soon.

Integration in one unit would enable a particularly high level of efficiency in the drive and when braking.

Integration would also reduce complexity through modularisation and facilitate manufacturing.

In the first step, a hydraulic brake is integrated into the drive brake unit. Long term, it is also planned to integrate dry braking systems without hydraulic components into the wheel hub drive.

Continental said the combination of drive and brake in one unit is a first step towards a corner module with integrated chassis components in a compact unit mounted directly on the wheel.