Ricardo unveils rare earth-free electric vehicle motor

The West Sussex based company said its 85kW synchronous reluctance electric motor uses a conventional distributed stator winding, and has a rotor made from cut steel laminations that are used to direct and focus the flux across the air gap. By maximising this flux linkage between the stator and rotor, performance can be optimised within a tightly packaged, low weight and rare earth element free design.

In a statement, Paul Rivera, MD of the Ricardo hybrid and electric vehicle systems business said: ‘As the market for electric vehicles grows globally, there is an imperative to explore alternatives to permanent magnet traction motors which require the use of expensive and increasingly difficult to source rare earth elements.’

‘The Ricardo prototype that we have announced…demonstrates what can be achieved by using the latest electric machine design processes in the creation of a high performing, compact, lightweight, and rare earth element free concept.’