ALEXANDRIA, Va., July 15 -- United States Patent no. 12,665,468, issued on June 23, was assigned to TOYOTA JIDOSHA K.K. (Toyota, Japan).
"Drive device" was invented by Eiji Ito (Toyota, Japan), Koichi Okuda (Toyota, Japan) and Atsushi Tabata (Okazaki, Japan).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A drive device mounted on a vehicle, the drive device comprising: an electric motor housed in the electric motor chamber; a first shaft arranged parallel to or coaxial with a rotor shaft of the electric motor; a counter gear for transmitting rotation of the rotor shaft to the first shaft; a second shaft for rotating wheels of the vehicle; a hypoid gear for transmitting rotation of the first shaft to the secon...