The winner of this year’s automotive category, and the winner of the C2I 2019 Grand Prix trophy, is a UK developed magnet-free electric motor that holds huge promise for the growing electric vehicle sector.
A new, magnet-free electric motor design promises to combine the performance of existing traction motors with greater sustainability. The culmination of six years of research, the High Density Switched Reluctance Motor (HDSRM) has recently gone into production and will be powering commercial vehicles on the road within months.
The project is led by Advanced Electric Machines (AEM), a spin-out company from Newcastle University, in collaboration with commercial vehicle maker Tevva Motors, the university itself, and software specialist Motor Design.
Among the motor’s main attributes is the elimination both of rare earth permanent magnets and copper, both of which make end of life disposal more difficult. The motor is expected to be used in a wide range of applications, but initial development has focused on the commercial vehicle market.
Commercial vehicles have to cope with higher utilisation than passenger cars. They often operate at the peak of their performance range for hours at a time, covering a large number of motorway miles. A robust technology which can operate at peak efficiency for long durations is therefore needed. The commercial vehicle sector is also heavily focused on total cost of ownership. AEM believes that successful electric vehicle technologies will be those that provide cost savings as well as environmental benefits. This means taking into account efficiency in operation, the cost of servicing and disposal costs.
After reading the main article … they talk about smaller vehicles, what about larger ones, like railway rolling stock ….
Very interesting indeed.