The unique structure and innovative drive mode of distributed electric drive vehicles can significantly enhance overall vehicle performance, making them a crucial direction for the future development of electric vehicles. The application of distributed electric drive vehicles has greatly promoted technological innovations in high-performance vehicles. It not only improves energy efficiency, driving safety, and maneuverability but also provides new solutions for specialized applications such as the road transportation of oversized and heavy-haul cargo. This paper reviews the century-long evolution of vehicle configurations and highlights the inevitability of the development of distributed electric drive architectures in the context of vehicle electrification and intelligence, as well as the profound transformations they bring to the automotive industry. The paper conducts a comprehensive analysis of the core technologies of distributed electric drive vehicles worldwide, identifying key challenges in their current development. Finally, the paper presents an outlook on the field, proposing future development goals and technological transformation directions for distributed electric drive vehicles, with the aim of providing scientific insights and strategic recommendations for advancing research and application in China.

Electric drive systems are the core assembly components of new energy vehicles, and their comprehensive performance optimization is of great significance. To enhance the power and economic efficiency of new energy vehicles, the electric drive systems have gradually developed multiple technological pathways to improve power density. This paper focuses on high-speed electric drive systems for pure electric passenger vehicles, elaborating on the domestic and international development status of rotor structure design, loss suppression, cooling technology, and wide-bandgap power devices in automotive high-speed electric drive systems. It identifies key issues in the electric drive systems, including rotor strength, transmission system design, high-frequency control, cooling and heat dissipation, vibration and noise, shaft current, and insulation design. The development trend in new material technology of the electric drive systems is summarized, such as continuous breakthrough, deepening integration, continuous optimization of control performance, continuous improvement of operation efficiency, and accelerated construction of intelligent operation and maintenance systems. On this basis, the paper proposes development suggestions about paying attention to the balanced optimization of the comprehensive performance of the electric drive systems, strengthening the integration design of the electric drive systems and the chassis, promoting the low-carbon green development of the electric drive systems, and optimizing the cost management of the high-speed electric drive systems.