The automotive supplier Mahle has, according to its own statement, developed the most enduring electric motor. The traction motor, which is unique on the market, should be able to work with high performance for an unlimited period of time. This technological leap is made possible by a new cooling concept. The new electric motor is unmatched small, light and efficient and can also be built without the use of rare earths if requested by the customer.
The new development is suitable for cars, commercial vehicles, construction machinery and tractors. With the SCT E-Motor, Mahle wants to become a full-range supplier in the field of electric drives and cover all needs from e-scooters to heavy commercial vehicles, off-road and industrial applications. The new product is to be presented for the first time at the IAA Transportation in September 2022 in Hanover.
„Building large e-motors that deliver high performance in the short term is easy. What was still missing on the market to make e-vehicles fully suitable for everyday use were durable and at the same time compact drives“, says Martin Berger, Head of Group Research and Advance Development at Mahle. The new SCT E-Motor should be the solution for this.
It was not until 2021 that Mahle presented a new type of wear-free and scalable traction motor for passenger cars, which works very efficiently over a wide speed range. The SCT electric motor, on the other hand, should be designed in such a way that it is particularly efficient within a certain speed range. Despite the very compact and lightweight design, its continuous output is more than 90 percent of its peak output, as the latest measurement results show, according to Mahle. This hitherto unrivaled high ratio, which is unique on the market, means a leap in technology and enables it to be used in all types of electric vehicles, even under demanding conditions. Classic examples are driving an electric truck over mountain passes or repeated sprints of a battery electric car. These scenarios are only insufficiently covered by the electric motors currently available on the market.
This resilience is achieved with the new SCT electric motor through the use of an innovative integrated oil cooling system, which not only makes it robust, but also enables the waste heat generated to be used in the vehicle’s overall system. The extremely compact design results in a material cost and weight advantage at the same time – a lighter engine requires less material during production and at the same time increases the possible payload of commercial vehicles.
When designing the product, Mahle opted for what is known as a permanently excited motor, as this design enables a very compact design and no energy has to be transferred to the rotor as “exciter current”. This makes the engine efficient and wear-free. Neodymium magnets, currently the strongest permanent magnets that can be produced, are used to generate the magnetic field in the motor.
For greater independence from raw material prices and geopolitical developments, the SCT electric motor can also be designed without magnets. Thanks to the contactless transmitter developed by Mahle, the magnet-free variant is also said to work wear-free and efficiently, while only taking up slightly more space.
Source: Mahle – press release from 07/04/2022