Hub-and-spoke conspiracy involving other actors who are cooperating with the hub in carrying out the scheme. It is controversial, particularly in the antitrust cases, how much knowledge spoke actors must have of the conduct of other spoke actors—which is to say how much of a "rim" must be put around the "wheel" of the hub-and-spoke conspiracy for it to be a single conspiracy rather than many separate "vertical" conspiracies. There is a controversy and some uncertainty over the legal status of the "rimless" conspiracy—one with very limited interaction among the spokes. The leading two Supreme Court cases were "Interstate Circuit" and "Kotteakos".
Wheel hub motor axles, provides a significant weight and manufacturing cost saving, while also decreasing the environmental impact of the product. The major disadvantage of a wheel hub motor is that the weight of the electric motor increases the unsprung weight, which adversely affects handling and ride. The wheels are more sluggish in responding to road conditions, especially fast motions over bumps, and transmit the bumps to the chassis instead of absorbing them. Most conventional electric motors include ferrous material composed of laminated electrical steel. This ferrous material contributes most of the weight of electric motors. To minimize this weight, several recent wheel-motor