Patent ID: 6880653

Claim:
An electric motor-operated vehicle comprised of a frame, a pair of wheels journalled by said frame, a pair of electric motors carried by said frame and each having an output shaft, and a pair of transmissions for selectively driving a respective of said wheels from the respective one of said electric motor output shafts or permitting said wheel to free wheel relative to said output shaft, each of said transmissions comprising a planetary gear mechanism, said planetary gear mechanism having a sun gear element, at least one planetary gear element meshing with said sun gear element, a ring gear element meshing with said planetary gear element and a carrier plate element supporting planetary gear element for rotation, said output shaft being in continuous driving relationship with one of said planetary gear mechanism elements, another of said planetary gear mechanism elements being in continuous driving relation with the respective one of said wheels, each of said transmissions comprising a coupling element that selectively retains the associated ring gear element against rotation or permitting rotation thereof for selectively driving the associated wheel from said output shaft of the respective of said motors at a speed reduction ratio or permitting freewheeling of said wheel relative to said output shaft and an operation mechanism mounted on the vehicle frame, and a transmitting system for transmitting the action of the operation mechanism simultaneously to both coupling elements of said planetary gear mechanisms.