See also the Saab Emily GT project. Even with an older, heavier gen of these axial flux motors they found significant performance gains by controlling each wheel via its own motor.
I didn't want to put the usability of the motor into question or go into a complete evaluation of advantages/disadvantages :) This was just an explanation that weight trimming the motor might be very much worth the effort - even if it somewhat "insignificant" compared with savings that are possible in battery weight.
Chartjunk. It took near-zero effort to find better ones all around this interesting and heavily researched topic, and their real papers too, per standard HN preference.
At a quick glance, none of those have a similar graph telling the same story: How efficient is it to get my own-self from A to B. A freight train sure moves a lot of mass, but how efficient is it for people-loads?
The first article comes close, but is more about why bicycles are so energy efficient (due to of all things not stretching your muscles!)
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