Nah, copying the HP printer+ink model is much better for them. Make ICE cars dirt cheap, almost free and then charge an arm and a leg for the fuel.

They didn’t seem to mention turning the wheel

In the video at roughly 4:20 they seem to be using single CV joint at the front to handle turning. Seems kinda constrained, but what do I know.

but what about unsprung weight?

Could be worse. Did you see all the in-wheel concepts Hyundai were show casing last year? I wouldn’t take this any more serious than all the ridiculous concept cars makers like to showcase. Still this might find some uses in niche cases, tiny city/kei cars, but probably won’t see usage in regular cars anytime soon or ever.

Doubtful that they will have huge demand problem. They are still expanding the plant 5x output while making it more automated and even then it’s only good for ~300K BEVs/year. The layoffs and reduced staff are due to on going retooling and expected increased automation nothing more.

Sure could argue LG might have bit of a intermediate customer problem with their biggest NA customers having failed to gain significant EV market share in NA. Same deal as with the second plant in Kentucky (the joint venture with Ford). One good contract and they are back to being undersized, but the chances are when the expansion is finished they will be fine as is.

And that’s without considering non-BEV usages like you mentioned. It’s simply still too small and the projected future lithium battery demand is too high for this to fail even though certain automakers might slip up I have no doubt that LG will find uses for that capacity with ease. Its a FUD article.

If you have power steering, going to hydroboost brakes is another option.

There is also the option of electromechanical brake booster (e.g. BOSCH iBooster, VW? eBKV, etc) as used on most EVs and many conversions. Another option is the less elegant hack job of using electric vacuum pump often seen on EV conversions that want to keep the original vacuum booster setup. Both solutions typically run on the low voltage system (~9-18V) and can be used in non-EV applications as well.