I saw that video also, it's cool what robots are doing but it means less human jobs, but robots don't need medical and all the union guarded benefits that people do so it's understandable that a robot costing a 1/4 million is still worth while, they can also work faster and non stop 24 hours a day..
The reason they are winding 3 phase AC induction motors are because they are so much more efficient, there are no brushes to wear out and with modern mosfet and switching PS it's even more worth converting DC to 3 phase AC for this purpose than it used to be, granted dc motors make a lot of torque but they are less efficient, you do see hobbyist using old DC forklift motors simply because they are cheap in homebrew electric conversions, but better kits are now available.
With so many front wheel drive cars you could add rear electric motors/controller/battery and have added acceleration depending on weight and output, an extra pair of driving wheels for snow/muddy conditions and you could save gas by using the electric drive around town and using gas for highway or electric assist to the gas for added efficiency and it would only be a small kit, actually if adding to a front wheel drive gas car I would operate it as assisted and possibly regenerative because you want the engine to be running spinning your torque converter so you don't hurt your automatic transmissions driving around on electric only with the gas engine off and trans in neutral, better to have the trans front pump spinning and even if manual you want the input shaft turning I have read for proper lubrication so I would operate both together, although in a breakdown of the gas engine/transaxle situation you could limp home on the electric only or for short trips use electric only. Running as an assist would likely be the best way anyway depending on your battery capacity.
This Zombie222 is a 68 mustang conversion to DC electric motors and it runs a 10 second 1/4 mile, I don't know what it's range is but it looks like fun. Also a 9 second electric doodle bug.
I posted a video a while back about the electric car that won Pikes peak hill climb, think it was Volkswagen. Here it is >
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=pikes+peak+electric