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Ricardo Touts Low-Cost Traction Motor for EVs
Ricardo UK Ltd. has developed a prototype 85-kW motor for electric vehicles that uses no costly rare earths and features a simple design and manufacturing process.
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Ricardo UK Ltd. has developed a prototype 85-kW motor for electric vehicles that uses no costly rare earths and features a simple design and manufacturing process.
Ricardo's design is a synchronous reluctance motor (SRM) that uses a steel rotor and stator electromagnets instead of rotor windings and permanent magnets. The design uses a controller to energize each stator winding at the moment it can contribute useful torque.
SRMs are robust and promise attractive efficiency over a broad range of loads. But they also can be hampered by low-speed "torque ripple" and noise. Ricardo says it overcame both issues with a rotor made of cut steel laminations that better focus flux across the air gap between rotor and stator.
The motor was developed under the U.K.'s Rapid SR project, an R&D effort co-funded by Innovate UK. The project is headed by Cobham Technical Services and Jaguar Land Rover.
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