Stellantis develops tank turn steering system for EVs

• Future Stellantis EVs might feature the ability to execute a tank turn
• Rivian ended up passing on tank turns
• The electric Mercedes-Benz G-Class can make a tank turn
  

Following the lead of a handful of other automakers, Stellantis is looking to patent an EV tank-steer system for off-road use, allowing vehicles to spin around on the spot without moving forward.

A patent application for this feature was published by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) on July 25, after being filed by Stellantis in early 2023. It discusses using a mechanical differential to spin the wheels on each axle in opposite directions in order to accomplish the tank turn, which would enable the function to work with EVs only with a single motor per axle.

Where actual tanks turn by braking the tracks on one side of the vehicle, Stellantis discusses using a gearbox to rotate the axle half shafts in opposite directions. The gearbox would be coupled to an electric motor, with one of these assemblies on each axle allowing for power to be sent to all four wheels.

Tank turns could be initiated via a touchscreen or by steering-wheel paddles or buttons, Stellantis suggests in the document. The automaker also lays out a procedure for controlling tank steering in which the steering wheel is turned to choose the direction and the accelerator and brake pedals are used to start and stop, respectively.

It’s unclear if Stellantis will actually bring this feature to production. If it did, Stellantis would join Mercedes-Benz, which offers the similar G-Turn feature on the electric version of its G-Class. Rivian cancelled its own Tank Turn feature due to environmental concerns, as the vehicular pirouettes tear up the ground on loose surfaces. Try something this on pavement and you’re likely to do the same to your tires.

BMW is developing a quad-motor EV powertrain that could make tank turns easy, but the automaker plans to focus on performance rather than trick features like that, or the CrabWalk feature that allows for diagonal driving in the GMC Hummer EV and Sierra EV. A 2022 patent filing indicated Ford was working on its own crazy EV steering feature, but we haven’t heard anything else about it since then.