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Shut Up About the Batteries: The Key to a Better Electric Car Is a Lighter Motor
- anigbrowl 9y agoGood article & technological work, but good luck finding collaborators with the arrogant attitude radiating from that headline
- qbrass 9y agoMade even worse since it probably wasn't the authors who gave it that headline.
- sunstone 9y agoAs I recall Siemens has an electric motor that weighs about 100lbs and puts out over 300hp. So yeah, it's all about the batteries still.
- rurban 9y agoNo, it's not. Doppelbauer is absolutely right. He just forget one key strategy with these high dynamic dynos. You make them longer, called cigar. The longer, the more area to apply the force. But then you've got a problem with the tyredyno design. The best cigars are 150cm's long, the ones used to test the best F1 engines. Those are handmade in low numbers, and extremely powerful and sensitive. They always need to need to know the exact absolute angle of the rotor, which is a hard mechanical problem. Wrong cooling fluid will break the engine. Only very few such engines do exist, but they are multitudes better than any cheap engine. Such dynos usually win F1 championships.
- TD-Linux 9y agoYeah, it's a neat motor design, but it doesn't support the headline - 6% greater power to weight of the motor.
- schiffern 9y ago>There are two kinds of AC motor: asynchronous and synchronous. We will focus on the synchronous ones because they generally perform better and more efficiently. fwiw Tesla disagrees. True the peak efficiency is better, but the average efficiency is worse. https://www.tesla.com/blog/induction-versus-dc-brushless-motors https://www.tesla.com/blog/induction-versus-dc-brushless-mot...
- lithos 9y agoSynchronous motors can be nice where you have predictable loads, well thought out maintenance schedules, and few surprises. Or worst case just can't deal with AC. Almost nothing falls in that category.
- sc0ttyd 9y agoNot even gonna read it even though I might be interested, due to the patently false clickbaity headline
- tdb7893 9y agoGenerally it is perfectly valid to judge a book by it's cover but the article is actually pretty different in tone from the headline so I think it's actually worth a read.
- FullyFunctional 9y agoThe headline promised a lot but the article delivered "4.4 percent less energy". Also, I find it interesting that the motor Tesla uses isn't even mentioned (and AFAICT doesn't fall in categories they compare).
- rausk 9y agoCould it still be about the batteries: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_density https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_density Seem it is hard to beat the WH/kg of chemical energy storages with electrochemical energy storage.
- sliverstorm 9y agoI agree we could really use improved batteries, but- You may not have to beat chemical energy if you can improve aero, weight, and efficiency.
- SigmundA 9y agoTesla S motor and inverter weighs 350 lbs on par with an ICE. The battery however weighs 1200 lbs while 20 gallons of gas weighs about 120 lbs. No its all about the battery weight, and cost.
- alberthartman 9y agoSo if you make your motor 10 pounds lighter you win? Heck, my backpack is 10 pounds. And a motor can only be 100% efficient, and they're at 97% now. Naw, I'll take my non-slipring motors.