Last updated: Feb 2020 by Narasimhan Santhanam
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t is a part of EV Next’s EV Perspectives.
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Introduction
Different types of motors exhibit different characteristics, which makes it important to evaluate motors on some basic parameters for choosing a particular type of motor for an electric vehicle.
Electric motors used in electric vehicle should have important attributes like simple design, high specific power, low maintenance cost, and good control. Motors that are widely used by electric vehicle manufacturers are DC brushed motors, DC brushless motors, Induction (Asynchronous) motor, Synchronous motor and Switched Reluctance motor. The comparison of few motors are mentioned below
| Motor Type | Advantage | Disadvantage | Used by |
| Brushed DC Motor[1] | Maximum torque at low speed |
|
Fiat Panda Elettra (SeriesDC motor), ConceptorG-Van (Separatelyexcited DC motor) |
| Permanent Magnet Brushless DC Motor (BLDC) |
|
|
Toyota Prius (2005) |
| Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motor (PMSM) |
|
|
Toyota Prius, Nissan Leaf, Soul EV |
| Induction Motor (IM) |
|
Tesla Model S, Tesla Model X, Toyota RAV4, GM EV1 | |
| Switched Reluctance Motor(SRM)Synchronous Reluctance Motor (SynRM) |
|
|
Chloride Lucas |
| PM assisted Synchronous Reluctance Motor |
|
BMWi3 | |
| Axial Flux Ironless Permanent Magnet Motor |
|
Renovo Coupe |
| Motor Type | Power (kW) | Base Speed (rpm) | Minimum Speed (rpm) | |
| HEV | BEV | |||
| IM | 57 | 93 | 3000 | 12,000 |
| SRM | 42 | 77 | 2000 | 12,000 |
| BLDC | 75 | 110 | 4000 | 9000 |
Power comparison of different motors having the same size
Today’s automakers use three different types of electric motors in green cars: the BLDC motor, brushed DC motor, and AC induction motor.
Permanent Magnet motors for example provide high power density as well as very high efficiency. The downside is that these motors are very expensive and also suffer from problems such as demagnetization of the magnets if the temperature exceeds the curie point. The motor in Nissan Leaf is a permanent magnet motor
Induction motors on the other hand are cheap to manufacture and maintain but suffer from lower efficiency as well as power density compared to their Permanent Magnet counterparts. Tesla model S uses an Induction motor
In addition to these two there are also Synchronous Brushed motor and Switched Reluctance motor (used in Holden/ECOmmodore)
48 V 1kW BLDC Traction Motor suitable for Electric Auto-Rickshaws
Learn more on the key components of the Powertrain: Transmission Systems | EV Motors | AC-DC Motors | Component Suppliers to Major EVs |
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See also the blog posts
- Electric Vehicles Supply Chain in India – Components for E-scooters, Electric Cars, E-rickshaws
- AC, DC Motors in Electric Vehicles – Types of Motors in Use in Electric Cars, E-scooter
- Electric Vehicle Transmission System – EV Transmission, Gears, Powertrain Comprehensive Inputs on Indian EV Ecosystem
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