The purpose of this paper is to design a direct-drive axial flux wheel motor. The motor dimensions are determined based on the required rating. A set of magnetic circuit models are used to calculate the basic motor characteristics and the design which has the shortest axial length is selected. The static and dynamic performance of the designed motor are calculated and verified with a finite element software. A prototype motor and driver is built to verify the performance of the motor experimentally. Finally, a passive magnetic bearing is designed to reduce the radial force acting on the motor bearings; the analysis shows that the bearings’ life can be extended with this design.