Suspension

What is the purpose of suspension?

The suspension system connects the wheels to the vehicle body. Its mission is to balance comfort, control, and safety by managing how the wheels move over the road and how the body reacts.

It serves several vital functions:

• Maintaining tire contact with the road surface: Ensures traction, steering, and braking by keeping the wheels in consistent contact with the road.
• Absorbing shock and vibration: Minimizes the impact of bumps and rough roads on the vehicle and its passengers.
• Supporting the vehicle's weight: Supports the chassis, passengers, and cargo while keeping ride height stable.
• Providing stability and control: Limits body roll, pitch, and bounce during cornering, braking, and acceleration.
• Enhancing handling and performance: Improves predictability, grip, and driver confidence.

Why suspension matters even more in EVs

EVs place different demands on chassis tuning than traditional cars:

• Higher mass: Battery packs increase total vehicle weight, raising the load the suspension must control.
• Instant torque and strong regenerative braking: Can increase squat under acceleration and dive under deceleration if not well managed.
• Quiet cabins: EVs make suspension noise (thumps, knocks, tire impacts) more noticeable.
• Large wheels and tires: Often increase unsprung mass and can make ride quality harder to perfect.
• Range and aerodynamics: Ride height and alignment stability can influence drag and rolling resistance.

What are the parts of a suspension system?

Most passenger-car suspensions include:

• Springs: Support the vehicle and define ride height (coil springs, air springs, leaf springs).
• Shock absorbers / dampers: Control spring motion by dissipating energy as heat.
• Control arms / links: Locate the wheel and guide its motion through suspension travel.
• Sway bar (anti-roll bar): Reduces body roll by linking left and right suspension movement.
• Struts (where used): Combine damping and structural support (common in MacPherson designs).
• Bushings and mounts: Isolate noise and vibration and influence handling feel.

The three big “levers”: construction, springs, and dampers

Suspension feel comes from the interaction of three major design choices:

1. Construction (architecture): How the wheel is located (MacPherson, multi-link, double wishbone, etc.)
2. Springs: How the vehicle is supported (coil vs air, progressive vs linear)
3. Dampers: How motion is controlled (passive, adaptive/CCD/CDC, frequency-selective, etc.)

On EVKX we split these into dedicated deep-dive pages.

Suspension deep dives

Suspension constructions (architectures)

Explains the most common layouts and why they’re chosen:

• MacPherson strut
• Double wishbone
• Multi-link
• Torsion beam and trailing arm solutions
• Solid axle / leaf spring (heavy-duty use)

→ Read: Suspension Constructions

Dampers

How shock absorbers shape comfort and handling:

• Passive vs adaptive damping (CCD/CDC)
• Frequency Selective Damping (FSD)
• Magnetorheological and performance damper designs
• How to interpret “adaptive suspension” claims

→ Read: Dampers

Springs

How coils and air systems support an EV:

• Coil vs air suspension
• Load leveling, ride height control, and bump stops
• Comfort vs control trade-offs (and range implications)

→ Read: Springs

Active suspension

What “active” really means:

• Active roll stabilization
• Preview systems (camera/radar)
• Modern high-end implementations

→ Read: Active Suspension

EVKX takeaway

Suspension is one of the biggest reasons two EVs with similar acceleration numbers can feel completely different in daily driving. A great setup keeps the tires calm, the body controlled, and the cabin comfortable without sacrificing confidence when the road gets rough. Even two EVs with similar specifications on paper can handle very differently because of suspension tuning — so it’s an area you should always judge with a real test drive.