| Project Detail |
Innovative solutions for sustainable electric vehicle mobility
As electric machine technology emerges, new technologies can provide innovative solutions for the electric car sector. The EU-funded EM-TECH project will develop innovative electric machine technology solutions for automotive traction. The project will focus on passenger car and van applications to provide competitive costs and significant reduction of motor energy loss during vehicle operation, and to decrease the rare earth content, including implementing magnet recycling solutions. The solutions will include innovative direct and active cooling designs, virtual sensing functionalities, enhanced machine control, electric gearing and digital twin-based optimisation. They will feature embedded systematic consideration of life cycle analysis and life cycle costing aspects right from the early design stages.
EM-TECH brings together 10 participants from industry and academia to develop novel solutions to push the boundaries of electric machine technology for automotive traction, through: i) innovative direct and active cooling designs; ii) virtual sensing functionalities for the high-fidelity real-time estimation of the operating condition of the machine; iii) enhanced machine control, bringing reduced design and operating conservativeness enabled by ii); iv) electric gearing to provide enhanced operational flexibility and energy efficiency; v) digital twin based optimisation, embedding systematic consideration of Life Cycle Analysis and Life Cycle Costing aspects since the early design stages; and vi) adoption of recycled permanent magnets and circularity solutions.
The proposed innovations will be implemented in new series of radial flux direct drive in-wheel motors characterised by so far unexplored levels of torque density (>150 Nm/litre, >50 Nm/kg), and on-board single stator double rotor type ironless axial flux machines providing power density and specific power levels in excess of 30 kW/litre and 10 kW/kg. The solutions will address both passenger car and van applications (continuous power levels of 50 kW - 120 kW), providing competitive costs (<6 Euro/kg for a production of 100000 units/year), and leading to significant reduction of motor energy loss during real vehicle operation (>25%), and to >60% decrease of the rare earth content, including implementation of magnet recycling solutions.
EM-TECH obtained the support of several car makers (AUDI and Changan UK), which will strengthen the exploitation strategy. EM-TECH will further directly contribute to the relevant European Destination and KSO C and A, by supporting the establishment of a European leadership in the sector of key digital, enabling and emerging technologies, and the development of the respective value chains. |
