Magna has superior the know-how and design of its EV motor with vital upgrades to the motor design that enhance its flexibility and cut back its measurement.
The brand new Magna eDrive is 20 p.c decrease in peak than the end result motor and weighs solely 165 lbs. “The subsequent-generation 800-volt eDrive answer units new requirements in effectivity, power-to-weight ratio, and torque density,” boasted Magna’s chief electrification engineer, Mike Dowsett. “It’s a drop-in answer that includes a number of superior applied sciences for vital reductions in weight and measurement, enhanced efficiency, prolonged driving vary, and sustainability.”
The brand new motor achieves an total effectivity of 93 p.c in comparison with 91 p.c for the earlier design. It produces 3.33 kilowatts per kilogram, whereas the previous motor made 2.0 kW/kg. A part of the rise comes from the brand new motor spinning at 20,000 rpm reasonably than the previous motor’s 16,000 rpm restrict. Peak energy is 250 kW.
This new motor’s get together trick is its skill to be put in in a traditional orientation or when rotated 90 levels. This makes it appropriate for set up in both entrance or rear places with out modification as a result of the motor works whereas rotated to suit the house necessities of a entrance drive module.
Magna’s Subsequent-Era eDrive on show at CES 2024. DAN CARNEY
This is because of a rigorously designed oil cooling system that locates the pump in order that it might probably decide up its oil provide from the underside of the motor in both orientation. The motor’s energetic oil management system is essential to its torque density due to the elevated cooling necessities of the motor in high-torque conditions, defined Dowsett. “For prime-speed, low torque driving versus low-speed, high-torque, that’s when the magnets want lots of cooling,” he stated.
Whereas the motor nonetheless has everlasting magnets that require rare-earth metals whose provide is each fragile and fraught with moral considerations, Magna has considerably diminished the quantity of most of these supplies and has utterly eradicated use of terbium, Dowsett reported. Whereas an eventual transfer to magnet-free induction motors is the corporate’s purpose, “proper now this is excellent progress,” Dowsett stated.
