Patent ID: 7174978

Claim:
A hybrid drive unit, comprising a first electric motor; a first planetaiy gear; a second electric motor, wherein: (a) the first planetary gear distributes and transmits a drive force transmitted from an input shaft to the first electric motor and an output shaft, with the input shaft drivingly connected to an engine output shaft of an internal combustion engine, (b) a power output from the output shaft and the second electric motor are synthesized, and (c) the first electric motor and the first planetary gear are housed in a transmission case with the second electric motor spaced from the transmission case; and a differential unit that is drivingly connected to the output shaft through a propeller shaft, wherein the second electric motor is closer to the differential unit than the second electric motor is to the transmission case, and the differential unit drivingly connects the second electric motor to the propeller shaft, wherein: the differential unit has a hypoid gear including a ring gear fixed in the differential unit and a drive pinion meshing with the ring gear and fixed on a leading end of the propeller shaft for distributing the drive force transmitted from the output shaft to the propeller shaft to individual drive shafts of left and right rear wheels, and the second electric motor is arranged downstream from power output from the differential unit, rotation transmitting gears are fixed in the differential unit so as to rotate integrally with the ring gear and the rotation transmitting gears are drivingly connected to the second electric motor, and the second electric motor includes a stator and a rotor, the rotation transmitting gears are drivingly connected to the rotor of the second electric motor through a reduction gear train having a plurality of parallel gears, and the rotation transmitting gears mesh with the reduction gear train.